Ford's never ending quest to lower emmisions and increase fuel economy now includes bubble injected, Aero chocolate bar like plastic.
By decreasing weight, the Ford Focus Electric can achieve even greater distance from a single charge of it's ev battery pack. It's a constant juggle between cost and weight savings - expensive super cars often use carbon fiber for the body panels and some structural members, but that just isn't cost effective for an everyday car like the Ford Focus Electric. However, by injecting microscopic bubbles into the plastic pieces on the car, they not only save weight, but also maintain the strength of the piece as well!
The process is called MuCell, and along with decreased weight, has other advantages during the manufacturing process such as faster production and lower energy required to produce the parts. All of these things make MuCell a no-brainer for electric vehicles like the Ford Focus Electric. Ford plans to use the MuCell plastic technology on all their vehicles by 2020.
Hop over to this site for the full article:
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2011/04/04/526195.html
(the Ford Focus Electric Forum will stay in this window)
By decreasing weight, the Ford Focus Electric can achieve even greater distance from a single charge of it's ev battery pack. It's a constant juggle between cost and weight savings - expensive super cars often use carbon fiber for the body panels and some structural members, but that just isn't cost effective for an everyday car like the Ford Focus Electric. However, by injecting microscopic bubbles into the plastic pieces on the car, they not only save weight, but also maintain the strength of the piece as well!
The process is called MuCell, and along with decreased weight, has other advantages during the manufacturing process such as faster production and lower energy required to produce the parts. All of these things make MuCell a no-brainer for electric vehicles like the Ford Focus Electric. Ford plans to use the MuCell plastic technology on all their vehicles by 2020.
Hop over to this site for the full article:
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2011/04/04/526195.html
(the Ford Focus Electric Forum will stay in this window)