Briggs Automotive Corporation (BAC) has been sponsored to conduct research on innovative and lightweight graphene-reinforced composite materials in order to advance the technology to the production stage in the automotive industry.
The world's only manufacturer of a single-seater supercar BAC Mono that can legally hit the road, along with Haydale Composite Solutions and Pentaxia Composites, has received funding from the Niche Vehicle Network (NVN) Association, and they will further explore Benefits of using graphene in boards. BAC will be a test bed for this technology and may catalyze market opportunities and generate larger-scale application opportunities.
In 2016, when BAC became the world's first car manufacturer to develop graphene-equipped panels, the company made headlines in major media, when the company produced graphene-reinforced carbon fiber composite rear wheels for Mono cars Wheel arch. Graphene consists of atomic thickness carbon flakes, much lighter than carbon fibers. Graphene is stronger than steel and carbon fiber, which means that it can reduce weight by 20% without hindering the strength of the sheet.
NVN's funding will allow BAC, Haydale, and Pentaxia to use graphene to develop lightweight composites while building a new, more thermally conductive carbon fiber composite mold system. This allows the new body panel system to have better mechanical and thermal properties.
The project aims to bring more benefits by reducing weight, reducing carbon dioxide emissions and reducing manufacturing cycles. The entire project will install and test body panels on the Mono supercar with the goal of reducing weight by 10% and reducing cycle time by more than 25%.
Later, through niche market automakers, high-end and luxury car industries, it will establish access to the market for new prepreg technology, which may bring "game-changing" new materials to more industries.
Co-founder and product development director Neill Briggs said, "We are excited to receive funding and are excited to start this project with our partners Haydale and Pentaxia. Niche market automakers are vital in the automotive industry and are Volkswagen As a stepping stone to market production technology, our goal is to place our graphene-reinforced composite body panels on mass market cars in the near future. "