If you're into cars, you'll undoubtedly already be aware of carbon fibre.
Carbon fibre (or carbon-fibre-reinforced-plastic, to give it its full name) is an extremely strong, stiff and lightweight material which is used in the manufacture of high-performance and racing cars. Its strength and low weight allows manufacturers to extract the best possible performance from their cars, boosting 0-62mph times and improving handling characteristics.
Another benefit of lowering vehicle weight is, of course, lower fuel consumption; so why is carbon-fibre not used on all modern cars? Well, the answer to that is that it's incredibly expensive. Carbon-fibre is very time-consuming to make, and too complex for the mass production methods used by volume car manufacturers.
Or is it? Ford has recently unveiled a new carbon-fibre bonnet for its Focus, which is said to be 50% lighter and five times stronger than its steel counterpart.
Ford claims that, thanks to on-going research into carbon-fibre production, the production time for the new bonnet is fast enough to be employed on a production line.
The bonnet is part of Ford's attempt to lower the weight of its cars by 340kg by the end of the decade.
Ford has no plans to implement this new technology in the near future; however, with the cost of oil on the rise, and global warming frequently making the headlines, mass produced carbon fibre cars may soon be a reality.
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