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    Articles related to Automotive & Transportation

    FCEVs Driving the Carbon Composite Hydrogen Tanks

    It is expected that by 2030, FCEVs will account for >1% of the global powertrain mix, which would represent around 1.2 to 1.7 million hydrogen vehicles including lightweight and commercial vehicles, each one of which will be equipped with CCHTs for hydrogen storage.

    Published: 03 Aug 2023

    In 2014, Toyota opened the doors to the hydrogen society by launching Toyota Mirai, the world’s first commercial FCEV (Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle). However, Mirai was not the first FCEV developed in the world. The credit of introducing the first FCEV to the world goes to General Motors, which developed Electrovan more than a half century ago in 1966. The GM Electrovan containing 2 giant storage tanks for hydrogen and oxygen, 32 fuel cell modules, electric motor, and a 550-feet piping throughout the rear of the vehicle weighted around 7,100 pounds. This system relied on rare metals including platinum, which made it too expensive, and no proper hydrogen infrastructure was there those days, which made this vehicle a failure. From GM Electrovan, that had a range of just 160 Kms, to today’s fuel cell vehicles that can range easily more than 600 Kms, the new-age fuel cell vehicles have seen a transition of innovation. An era of risky storage, prohibitive cost, and with less room has ended with the dawn of high-pressure vessels, specifically – Carbon Composite Hydrogen Tanks (CCHTs) for fuel storage. Carbon Composite Hydrogen Tanks, Their Types, & Applications CCHTs are the pressure vessels fully wrapped by carbon composites with metallic or polymeric liners (Type III & Type IV). Type III tank has a metal liner (aluminium or steel) with full composite overwrap, whereas Type IV is a complete carbon fiber made tank having an inner liner made of polyamide or polyethylene plastic. In 2021, hydrogen pressure vessels had nearly 7% share of the total pressure vessels market, a majority of which is CCHT. Table.1. Types of Pressure Vessels The reason behind preferring carbon composites for the new-age hydrogen pressure vessels is that these materials are known for their superior strength & durability along with light weight, offering a mass-reduction between 50%-70%. CCHTs find usage in a variety of applications, including cars, buses, trucks, forklifts, trains, ships, refuelling stations, bulk gas transportation, and back-up power. However, FCEV is the one application which generates over 90% of the demand for CCHTs.

    eVTOLs: Making the Alliance Stronger Between Composites and Mobility

    According to a recent report on eVTOLS by Stratview Research, yearly eVTOL production volumes would reach 5,000+ units by 2028, generating a demand for ~7.4 million kilograms of composite materials around the same time.

    Published: 15 Jul 2023

    If we do a quick recap of the top-tier international composite and aviation-related trade shows in 2022, we can easily conclude that eVTOLs stood out to be among the most talked-about innovations throughout those events. And though they’ve been the industry’s favorite thing to write about for a long time now, the fact that we are now able to see several of those full-scale demonstrators in a single event just gives us a really good idea about how close the anticipated Advanced Air Mobility(AAM) revolution is. eVTOLs will be one exciting paradigm shift to witness in the mobility industry and according to the claims being made by the leading eVTOL OEMs, a few handpicked cities (cities with high traffic congestion and a supporting UAM infrastructure like Los Angeles, Miami, etc.) might be witnessing hundreds of them as soon as 2025. Since it’s mobility that we are talking about and that too, electrically powered; lightweighting has to be among the key design requirements, and considering the formidable alliance that lightweighting has with advanced materials and composites, the eVTOL industry will be among the huge demand generators for composite materials in no time. Composites Taking it to the Skies with eVTOLs: According to a recent report on eVTOLS by Stratview Research, yearly eVTOL production volumes would reach 5,000+ units by 2028, generating a demand for ~7.4 million kilograms of composite materials around the same time. Taking into account, the potential changes in the cost of carbon fibre, and resin, the demand thus generated in the year 2028 for composite materials, by the eVTOL industry is estimated to be worth $517 million in value. Fig. 1: eVTOL units manufactured annually & Corresponding composite material demand (2024-2028) What must be noted here is, as per the disclosed information, Joby is running at least one step ahead of others in the certification race since it has already received the Means of Compliance from the FAA, and still has a commercialization target of 2025. On the other hand, some OEMs still don’t have their certification basis confirmed with the concerning regulatory authorities, which is the step before receiving the means of compliance; and yet they are planning to start commercialized operations in 2024. But, regardless of the year of entry into service, the demand for composite materials from the eVTOL industry will more than double every year during the initial 2-3 years of commercialization and it will happen primarily because of two factors. All leading eVTOL OEMs are planning to scale their manufacturing volumes very rapidly, by a factor >2x every year, once they receive a nod from the regulatory authorities. Though tentative, many leading OEMs have several hundreds of pre-orders in their respective order books. Another factor contributing to the high demand for composite materials from this industry is the high penetration as compared to its allies in the transportation industry. For instance, the pioneers of composites usage in aircraft, namely the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 XWB, are both ~50% composites by weight. For light vehicles, the percentage is generally <15% and for eVTOLs, even the lower range is higher than the higher range of other industries, i.e., 70%, and for some programs, it can go as high as >90%. Some major applications of composites in eVTOLs are shown in the figure below. Fig. 2: Major applications of composites in eVTOLs Structures and propulsion systems combinedly will consume about 75-80% of the composite materials used in these aircraft, with interior applications like floor panels, beams, etc. being second in line with an approximate share of 12-14%. The remaining share will belong to avionics and other smaller applications. It’s no wonder that the cost breakdown for the manufacturing of eVTOLs, as suggested by leading OEMs, also follows a similar distribution. For example, according to the estimates by Vertical Aerospace, 40% of the manufacturing cost will be spent on battery and propulsion systems, followed by another 30% being spent on structures and interiors. Avionics will account for ~20% of the manufacturing cost and the rest will be the cost of assembly.

    Leaf Spring - An Emerging Application in Automotive Composites

    Earlier, the forte of steel, the Leaf Springs now have caught hold of attention of the composites industry. Composite leaf spring occupies a miniscule share of the total leaf springs market, but its market is growing impressively to reach over USD 90 million by 2024.

    Published: 31 Jan 2020

    Composites are Engineers Best Friends! This post is the first in the series of Stratview Research’s articles on “Attractive Composite Applications”. Well, it’s not only the humans who are on a diet today. Transportation industry, which is the backbone of the global economy, has been fasting rigorously for the past few years now. The vehicles are being put on diet with the governments across the globe pressing for improvement in fuel efficiency. The regulations like CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) have set the benchmark of emissions across the world. The world today is serious about its commitment to reduce emissions. Composites are apparently one of the favourite ingredients in the automotive industry’s high-strength diet plan. Composite was used in cars like the Chevrolet Corvette, as early as the 1950s; seven decades hence the penetration of composites remains quite low. But a lot has changed with time and we have come to a point in time where the speed of change is much higher than ever before.  The coming decade seems to hold the key to composites. Automotive industry is now one of the leading consumers of composites with the annual demand of composite materials to reach over $15.5 billion by the year 2024. (Source – Automotive Composites Market Study) Composites now find usage in all the major application areas in an automobile including the interior, exterior, and under the hood applications. Here is the sneak peek of the composite applications in a car. We are bringing an exclusive white paper on automotive composites market for our readers soon. Like & follow our page for updates. Composites Usage Spring up in Leaf Springs Composites are spreading their wings by adding new applications under their ambit. Earlier, the forte of steel, the Leaf Springs now have caught hold of attention of the composites industry. The earliest automotive application of spring finds its origin in Roman ingenuity. They used leaf springs to dampen the shocks to their chariots; or possibly even before it, in the fabled chariots of Egyptian demigod Tutankhamun. Owing to their capacity to bear massive weights, leaf springs have become an inalienable part of the transportation industry. Leaf springs can be categorised as; Parabolic leaf spring and Multi-leaf leaf springs. Parabolic leaf spring is a single leaf spring, mostly used in the front axle, but the adaptation at the rear side has been seen recently. Multi-leaf spring has a set of leafs one on top of the other, they can support greater loads compared to the mono-leaf springs and provide higher spring rates with lesser rates for rebounds which is useful in supporting and controlling a vehicle’s axle wrap-up. Nearly two-thirds of the vehicles have multi-leaf leaf springs installed on them, as per our research published on automotive leaf springs market prospects. Composite leaf springs offer multitude of benefits over steel counterparts. Weighing as low as 1/7th of steel leaf springs, composite leaf springs are five times more durable stronger and lighter better in damping properties excellent in fatigue resistance silent in terms of vibration and noise Have a look at the chart below to understand the magnitude of weight reduction offered by composites in leaf spring application.

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    Tags:

    EU Clean Aviation programme | Composite Battery Casing | Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) | Composites in Aerospace and Defence | PEEK | Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics | Prosthetics | Orthopaedic Composites | Marine Composites | Membrane |

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