Lightening the load with composite materials

EPFL's Laboratory of Composite and Polymer Technology is participating in HIVOCOMP, an EU program to develop innovative materials for the automotive industry. Cars are a conundrum - they have to haul a ton or two of metal just to move a single person from one place to another. Environmental awareness and increasingly strict laws are driving car manufacturers to produce vehicles that are more energy-efficient. This, in turn, means that cars need to lose weight. A European research project involving many academic and industrial partners was launched this year. Members of the Hivocomp consortium, whose research will be carried out over a four-year period, will explore the potential of certain composite materials to be used on a large scale in the automotive industry. "The problem with many of these materials is that they are not really compatible with mass production," explains Véronique Michaud, professor in EPFL's Laboratory of Composite and Polymer Technology.