The engine of the future is made of plastic

Posted on 13-04-2015 at 18:20 by ricardo – 66 Comments”

No, that does not melt.

Car manufacturers go to in their quest for fuel savings still further. The gain is primarily achieved through the downsizing and drukvullen of engines, as well as the ever-lighter of car bodies. For the obvious cases. But there is another way to support the weight of cars continue to drop: due to plastic parts. And no, we are not on a plastics body (which did the Trabant half a century ago), but on a motor that is partly of plastic is made.

At least, that is where the German Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT are doing. They do research into the feasibility of plastic parts on a large scale can be made. their most recent creation is a ééncilinder engine with a cylinder of plastic (the cylinder head is of metal).

The parts are constructed from a composite in which plastic resin is mixed, so there is a fibre-reinforced plastic is formed. By means of injection molding, all parts of their form. For the components heat-resistant (read: to prevent the quantity of a melt) is looking at the places where the temperature is the highest to rise, there is then metal used. It also speaks for itself that the cylinder wall also metal. The plastic is also made so that it can not be damaged or stained by oil, fuel and coolant.

The cylinder (black) is made of plastic.

However, the engine is 20 percent lighter off the bus than its counterpart that is fully metal constructed. Also, the noise levels are lower and radiates the block less heat, while the costs for production would lie. More explanation in this PDF you (point 4).

The next step of Fraunhofer is to a semi-plastic engine with multiple cylinders, in which the krukaslagers of plastic be made. Somewhere at the end of the next decade, we see this undoubtedly somewhere trickle down at a large car manufacturer.