Carbon/biocomposite hybrid vehicle structures for reduced weight, cost and environmental impact (CARBIO)

The CARBIO project will develop automotive structures with reduced weight, cost, environmental impact and improved noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) by the incorporation of novel flax-bioepoxy composites into carbon fibre components.
The need to reduce vehicle weight is leading to the adoption of carbon fibre, which is expensive, energy/CO2 intensive, difficult to recycle and can lead to poor NVH. Flax fibres are low cost, renewable, CO2 neutral and have excellent vibration damping properties, whilst bio-based epoxy resins offer enhanced toughness and sustainability over synthetic epoxies.
This project will develop and optimise flax/carbon hybrid biocomposite materials and test them according to automotive OEM specifications. A number of case study parts, such as a door, wheel arch panel and seat structure, will be designed and validation parts will be produced and tested.