From door handles to dashboards, oil-based plastics are the most commonly used materials for fit-out parts in automobiles. But over the past few years, researchers at Ford have been looking to replace conventional plastics with plant based plastics made from soy beans, tomatoes and most notably to date, coconuts.<\/p>\n
Ford intends to make widespread use of a composite made from coconut coir, which refers to the husks or the hairy outsides of a coconut. The husk fibers are blended with polypropylene fibers, creating a non-woven fabric composite. When heated, the fibers can be molded into the shapes required for linings and panels. This composite material is similar in performance to carbon fiber, but not as stiff and far less expensive than composites used in race cars. Particular applications for coconut composites include both indoor and outdoor trims, car ceilings, dashboards and floorboards.<\/p>\n
Using plants as a material source is not a new idea at Ford. Henry Ford himself was interested in collaborating with farmers to make plastics from farm materials. In addition to creating a sustainable partnership with local farms, his idea was that plant based plastic components used in place of steel would make cars lighter and in theory, safer. Over 70 years later, his ideas are being realized.<\/p>\n
So what exactly do these coconut plastics look like? Because of the long fibers, materials made of coconut are often described as having a more \u2018natural\u2019 look. The trunk package tray in the Ford Focus EV is made from coconut husks and has a feel similar to fiberboard.<\/p>\n
Could cars in the future be entirely plant based? Currently there are a number of challenges to overcome, particularly with the ability of plant based plastics to cope with stress and heat. But there is a definite trend in the direction of plant-based materials.<\/p>\n
As inspiration, you can find above images of Cebu\u2019s Coconut Car, a vehicle created by designer Clayton Tugonon. Made with materials from his native Philippines, the main material used for the exterior body of the car came from the stalks of coconut flowers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From door handles to dashboards, oil-based plastics are the most commonly used materials for fit-out parts in automobiles. But over the past few years, researchers at Ford have been looking to replace conventional plastics with plant based plastics made from soy beans, tomatoes and most notably to date, coconuts. Ford intends to make widespread use […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[],"supplier":[1557],"class_list":["post-22483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","supplier-ford-motor-company"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22483"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=22483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}