Mexican Media Brands
Ford, DowAksa Partner on Carbon Fiber Development
Ford Motor Co. has signed an agreement with DowAksa to develop high-volume production techniques for carbon-fiber-reinforced components for cars.
Share
Ford Motor Co. has signed an agreement with DowAksa to develop high-volume production techniques for carbon-fiber-reinforced components for cars.
The pact extends Ford's four-month-old collaboration with Istanbul-based DowAksa, a 50:50 venture between Dow Chemical Co. and Turkey's Aksa Akrilik Kimya Sanayii AS, the world's largest producer of acrylic fibers.
Carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics offer light weight and high strength. But producing such components is slow and expensive. Ford says the DowAksa partnership will target lower-cost automotive grades of carbon fiber suitable for aligned and random fiber formats in both thermoset and thermoplastic materials.
The companies aim to combine DowAksa's production capabilities with Ford's design, engineering and manufacturing know-how. Ford notes that the agreement could be extended to include a commercial manufacturing partnership.
Ford announced in January it was collaborating with DowAksa and the U.S. Dept. of Energy to develop automotive-grade carbon fiber. The two companies are part of the Energy Dept.'s newly formed Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation in Knoxville, Tenn.
RELATED CONTENT
-
Things to Know About Cam Grinding
By James Gaffney, Product Engineer, Precision Grinding and Patrick D. Redington, Manager, Precision Grinding Business Unit, Norton Company (Worcester, MA)
-
Jeeps Modified for Moab
On Easter morning in Moab, Utah, when the population of that exceedingly-hard-to-get-to town in one of the most beautiful settings on Earth has more than doubled, some people won’t be hunting for Easter eggs, but will be trying to get a good look at one of the vehicles six that Jeep has prepared for real-life, fast-feedback from the assembled at the annual Easter Jeep Safari.
-
When Automated Production Turning is the Low-Cost Option
For the right parts, or families of parts, an automated CNC turning cell is simply the least expensive way to produce high-quality parts. Here’s why.
