Car door features carbon/flax hybrid

A door for a hydrogen-powered vehicle has been built using flax supplied by Composites Evolution.

The door panel, developed by NetComposites, KS Composites and Riversimple for the Rasa hydrogen fuel cell car, has been built using a carbon/flax hybrid micro-sandwich that is said to combine the mechanical benefits of carbon with the added advantages of reduced weight, cost, noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) and environmental impact of flax.

The need to reduce weight to improve vehicle efficiency and range is leading to the adoption of carbon fibre, which is relatively expensive, energy/carbon dioxide intensive, and can cause NVH issues, said Composites Evolution.

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