Tech : Plastic as strong as steel developed, cars are going to get much lighter

There is a growing focus at the moment on making all of our transportation more fuel efficient. This can be done in a number of ways, including developing ever more efficient engines. However, the weight these engines need to move also comes into play. The lighter a vehicle is, the less fuel is required to carry it along. With that in mind, Sekisui Chemical has developed a new resin that’s as strong as steel, while at the same time being much lighter.

The resin is actually made up of a three-layer structure. Polyolefin foam is encased in thermoplastic sheets that have a nanoscale graphene-like carbon sheet integrated into them. The end result is a very strong, rigid plastic sheet that can be easily heat molded in a press to form a desired shape while retaining that strength Sekisui states that the sheets, which can be up to 10mm thick, are available in two forms. The first focuses on stiffness and weighs 3,500 grams/m 2 . The second focuses on minimizing weight by reducing stiffness and weighs just 2,200 grams/m 2 . For comparison, an equivalently stiff steel sheet weighs 10,100 grams/m 2 . That’s a huge weight saving The combination of lightweight, easy molding, and steel-like strength potentially make it ideal for use in cars, trains, ships, and even aircraft, and Sekisui will be focusing on these markets. There’s also plans to explore its use in construction. And of course, there’s one more advantage to using a plastic resin instead of steel, especially in vehicles subject to the elements: it won’t require the same treatments and paint to stop corrosion. That will also mean a saving on manufacturing and maintenance costs as well as weight.

Samples of the new material are set to be available by the summer of this year. If the resin turns out to be as good as it sounds we could see a company such as Tesla experimenting with it to make its cars even lighter without compromising safety.