View Single Post
Old 02-05-2009, 01:48 PM   #11 (permalink)
MechEngVT
Mechanical Engineer
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Richmond, VA
Posts: 190

The Truck - '02 Dodge Ram 1500 SLT Sport
90 day: 13.32 mpg (US)

The Van 2 - '06 Honda Odyssey EX
90 day: 20.56 mpg (US)

GoKart - '14 Hyundai Elantra GT base 6MT
90 day: 31.25 mpg (US)

Godzilla - '21 Ford F350 XL
90 day: 12.1 mpg (US)
Thanks: 0
Thanked 7 Times in 6 Posts
I met with a plastic thermoforming company once and they showed me a sample of a material that's fairly new that made me think of plastic monocoque construction. I seem to recall that it was produced by twin-sheet thermoforming polycarbonate into alternating "egg-crate" shapes to produce somewhat of a sandwich product about 3/4" thick. The two sheets would adhere to one another where one sheet's "bucket" touched the opposing sheet, and the patterns interlocked. If one could take this product in sheet form and thermoform it into more complex shapes it could be a very strong construction material (the 4" x 4" sample I saw did not flex when I put as much abuse to it as I could by hand).

Polycarbonate and carbon fiber both have a disadvantage regarding human crash protection: the human body will not "reject" the shards of foreign material.

__________________
  Reply With Quote