Use of Carbon Fibers in Automotive Market

Due to several reasons, automotive industry is looking for fuel-efficient solutions for ground solution.  With increasing volatility in oil prices, growing global warming problems and increased levels of pollutions are some reasons, which are forcing the automotive market to find alternative solutions.  Use of carbon fibers is regarded as one such product that can alleviate these kinds of problems to some extent.

Carbon fiber is a lightweight product specially used in heavy vehicles including tractors, trailers and others.  Though there is no need of weight reduction in lightweight passenger cars, it is useful.  Use of carbon fiber composites is mainly considered in high-end cars automobiles.

Carbon fibers are used for making automotive bodies, gears, bearings and fan blades. It is lightweight and corrosion free substance that makes it feasible for use in automobiles. What is carbon fiber and what makes it special for use in automotive industry. Carbon fiber is graphite fiber and is made up of ultra thin fibers. These fibers are primarily comprised of carbon atoms. The diameter of these fibers is approximately 00.5-0.010. These are fibers are very strong as they are made of carbon and are spun together with the help of crystal alignment. With this kind of size and strength, it has produced a dynamic strength-to-weight ratio. In addition, the density of this material is quite less than other materials used for car making such as steel.

Apart from its lightweight feature and great strength,   some more features make this substance quite useful in automotive market. It features low thermal expansion, electrical conductivity and high tensile strength that make it beneficial for motor sports. It is used for making automobile hoods, built-in electronic equipment in cars, novel tooling and EMI and RF shielding.

Carbon fibers are extensively used in automotive styling and racing. These days, many parts of a car are made from graphite fibers including bonnet, hood, boot, lip and fender.  People who have driven these kinds of cars at least once are very impressed with the style and performance of these vehicles.

Many leading automobile manufacturers like BMW, Lamborghini, Mercedes-Benz and other high-end manufacturers are increasingly using carbon fiber composites to reduce the weight. In addition, all these manufacturers are investing time, efforts and money over   finding more use of carbon fiber in their products.

A leading global carbon fiber manufacturer observed that automotive market is the largest consumer of carbon fibers. These composites are preferred choice of material for concept cars as they offer design freedom and reduced tooling costs.

Lucintel, a leading global market research firm, has repeatedly mentioned in its forecasts about the growth of carbon fiber market. According to its forecast, the carbon fiber market is increasing from 9.8% per year to 13% per year for next five years.