FAURECIA : envisions a composite future for a breakthrough in vehicle weight reduction

Frankfurt (Germany), September 10, 2013

Faurecia is making major inroads into the composite world to achieve breakthrough weight reductions for structural, semi-structural and vehicle body parts. Exhibited on a stylized vehicle silhouette at this week's Frankfurt Motor Show, the "Composite Future" demonstrator illustrates how Faurecia has succeeded in developing a very broad range of bumper-to-bumper components, emphasizing ways in which composites can be employed to achieve major weight savings.
"While composites are commonly used in racing cars and jumbo jets to reduce their weight, Faurecia is seeking to bring composite production techniques to the design of vehicle structural, semi-structural and body parts," said Jacques Hoffner, Vice President R&D of Faurecia Automotive Exteriors. "We expect these materials and their processes will be ready for use in the 2018-2020 generation of vehicles to help them meet the new 2020 regulations tightening CO2 emissions standards."
For vehicle body parts, either "visible"-carbon or body-colored, Faurecia addresses the luxury and sports vehicle segments where highest quality and fit-and-finish levels are expected, reflecting extreme attention to detail and unique design. The main objective is weight savings versus traditional steel or aluminum parts. So- called "exposed" or visible carbon parts such as spoilers, roofs, hoods, side blades or trim kits, must be flawless in their manufacturing, because all of their patterns show in the final part, requiring close to hand- made production processes, such as resin transfer molding (RTM) to produce visible carbon-fiber body parts. Faurecia has a 10-year experience in this area, where every part is strictly controlled to ensure full end-user satisfaction enabling for differentiation and personalization of their vehicles. Body-colored parts equally require best-in-class quality and finishing levels, can be either glass or carbon-fiber reinforced enabling to use the sheet-molding composite (SMC) technology, then painted in the vehicle body color. Their main advantage over steel or aluminum is weight and tooling costs savings for parts such as closure panels, fenders, hoods or liftgates.
For semi-structural parts, Faurecia addresses two types of vehicles. First, parts for luxury and sports vehicles generally require more mechanical strength i.e. to link the chassis to the vehicle body parts. The prime objective is to achieve weight reductions without compromising rigidity, a key aspect for such high-end vehicles. Typical parts using carbon composites are A-pillar reinforcements or deck lid surrounds, where weight savings reach 50% versus steel.
Second, parts for mainstream vehicles are generally closures. Here, Faurecia already has significant experience in adapting design and processes to meet customer requirements using such technologies as thermo-plastic injection, SMC or RTM, with long or continuous fibers for both glass and carbon fiber reinforcement.
For structural parts, automakers are both looking for breakthrough weight reductions at an affordable cost for mainstream vehicles, while for the high-end of the market this requires highly structural parts, such as chassis or body-in-white parts, for which the weight-to-stiffness performance is the key. Indeed, customers in this segment expect extreme lightweight with no compromise whatsoever on rigidity and safety. Overall, Faurecia estimates that increased use of composite materials for structural parts could reduce the weight of these components by as much as 40% vs. steel. In this field, Faurecia has the know-how in the production of safety cells in small series, based on experience in the field of luxury, sports and performance cars. The objective is to support automakers in the manufacturing of next generation structural parts with a focus on materials and processes to reach part cycle times under two minutes.

Faurecia is working on processes to produce each of these three types of parts in high volumes, even for mainstream vehicles, to decrease their overall weight. Conventionally, composites have been used only in very small amounts on consumer vehicles, but Faurecia is working to use either glass or carbon fibers for structural components in its projected high-volume production methods.
At the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show, the Faurecia booth #B12 is located in hall 5.1.

Faurecia is the world's sixth-largest automotive equipment supplier with four key Business Groups: Automotive Seating, Emissions Control Technologies, Interior Systems and Automotive Exteriors. In 2012, the Group posted total sales of €17.4 billion. At December 31, 2012, Faurecia employed 94,000 people in 34 countries at 320 sites, including 30 R&D centers. Faurecia is listed on the NYSE Euronext Paris stock exchange and trades in the U.S. over-the-counter (OTC) market. For more information, visit: www.faurecia.com

Contacts Media

Olivier Le Friec / Head of Media Relations

Tel: +33 1 72 36 72 58 / Cell: +33 6 76 87 30 17 olivier.lefriec@faurecia.com

distributed by