Thermoplastic composites suspension featured on racecar
The Polystrand GT-Lite racecar recently completed its third racing weekend at the SCCA Majors event in Pueblo, Colo.
The racing environment is a good place to test out innovation in car design. After all, from the rearview mirror to seat belts, there’s plenty of every day car technologies that came from racing. Could a rear suspension outfitted with fiber-reinforced thermoplastic nylon springs and control arms be next on the list?
Thermoplastic composites specialist Polystrand (Englewood, Colo.) developed the GT-Lite racecar, a purpose-built racing vehicle designed to highlight the application of thermoplastic composite materials in automotive applications. The racecar recently completed its third racing weekend May 28-29 at the Home of the Heroes SCCA Majors event at Pueblo Motorsports Park in Pueblo, Colo., with podium finishes in both the sprint race and the feature event. Polystrand believes this is the first vehicle to use continuously-reinforced thermoplastic (nylon) composites as the primary suspension springs. Check it out here:
“While thermoplastics have been in use in motor vehicles for decades, we believe that this application of continuously reinforced thermoplastics as the primary suspension springs to be the very first in the industry,” says Ed Pilpel, president of Polystrand. “We strongly believe that reinforced thermoplastics offer an excellent opportunity in automotive lightweighting applications due to their ease and speed of processing, and offer a cost-effective, recyclable alternative to current materials.”
The car, bodied as a 1987 Honda CRX, features a multi-link independent rear suspension system designed by Jonathan Spiegel, Senior Engineer for Polystrand. Spiegel also holds a competition license and drove the car at these events. “In our first outing at MSR Houston, we chased minor electrical and braking problems during the event that prevented us from finishing the races, but the suspension system never missed a beat. The second event at Gateway Motorsports Park, we had some oil pressure issues and a small leak, but still managed a fifth place finish."
But he said during the race in Pueblo, everything came together. "We were pretty confident that the suspension would work well, but the performance has far exceeded our expectations, and we haven’t made a single change to the system yet," he said.
Here are some facts regarding material and design: The springs and upper control arms of the rear suspension are manufactured from PA6 nylon resin, and are reinforced with PPG Industries Inc. (Pittsburgh, Pa.) TufRov 4510 continuous E-glass fibers. The prototype springs were compression molded from Polystrand continuously reinforced thermoplastic tape at the Materials Processing and Applications Development (MPAD) Center at The University of Alabama, Birmingham (UAB) School of Engineering. Also featured on the car is a reinforced polypropylene front splitter and hybrid interior sandwich panels made of reinforced PETG thermally bonded between thin layers of aluminum and stainless steel, manufactured in-house at Polystrand using PPG TufRov 4588 reinforcement.
of the Pueblo SCCA Majors race.
“We couldn’t have accomplished these milestones without the continued efforts of PPG,” says Spiegel, “and we’d also like to acknowledge the strong support from several automotive aftermarket companies: AEM Performance Electronics, Action Clutch, Brian Crower, HASport, and Honda Performance Development, who provided the products necessary to make the car competitive.”
The car.
Related Content
Novel dry tape for liquid molded composites
MTorres seeks to enable next-gen aircraft and open new markets for composites with low-cost, high-permeability tapes and versatile, high-speed production lines.
Read MoreUnderstanding vacuum bagging layers in production, repair
Recognizing the functions of each layer in a vacuum bag schedule can help users discover what vacuum bag schedules work best for their application.
Read MoreMikrosam, H2Storage collaborate on 300+-liter Type IV hydrogen tanks
Automated filament winding cell achieving wind speeds of 6 meters/second improves production performance, shortens curing cycle for serial production of 700-bar Type IV tanks.
Read MoreRobotized system makes overmolding mobile, flexible
Anybrid’s ROBIN demonstrates inline/offline functionalization of profiles, 3D-printed panels and bio-based materials for more efficient, sustainable composite parts.
Read MoreRead Next
CFRP planing head: 50% less mass, 1.5 times faster rotation
Novel, modular design minimizes weight for high-precision cutting tools with faster production speeds.
Read MorePlant tour: A&P, Cincinnati, OH
A&P has made a name for itself as a braider, but the depth and breadth of its technical aptitude comes into sharp focus with a peek behind usually closed doors.
Read MoreModeling and characterization of crushable composite structures
How the predictive tool “CZone” is applied to simulate the axial crushing response of composites, providing valuable insights into their use for motorsport applications.
Read More