Far-UK wins Innovation in Design Award for CFRP car chassis

Far-UK, a company specialising in the design and manufacture of lightweight structural composite components has been awarded an industry award for an innovative car chassis design.

The ‘Innovation in Design’ award at this year’s Composites UK Industry Awards was awrded to the company for its super lightweight carbon fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) ‘AxontexTM’ 3D beam car chassis design, developed by Axon Automotive Ltd (part of Far-UK).

This innovative composite technology is used for the new Hyundai Intrado hydrogen powered crossover concept car. The super lightweight CFRP chassis prototypes were produced in the UK for Hyundai by Axon Automotive at its factory in Northamptonshire.

The award, sponsored by the National Composites Centre (NCC), was presented by Chief Executive Professor Peter Chivers to Axon Automotive’s Managing Director, Chris Taylor, who said he was “delighted” to receive the award on behalf of Far–UK and the Axon Automotive team.

Two advanced composites materials from Scott Bader are used to manufacture and bond together the component sections of the Axontex super-lightweight CFRP car chassis system of the Intrado.

The Intrado’s chassis is made up entirely of moulded parts fabricated using Axon Automotive’s internationally patented Axontex structural beam composite technology.

Crestapol 1250LV is the specified infusion resin, that is vacuum assisted resin transfer moulded (VARTM) around Axon’s proprietary 3D beam design, which combines woven carbon fibre-braided tubing around low density polyethylene (LDPE) preforms that foam and expand during infusion. Using this design and process, which can be fully automated, Axontex can be used to form both straight and curved components to create complex-shaped assembled structures.

All of the chassis and frame CFRP components are robotically bonded together by Axon using Crestabond M1-20 primer-less structural adhesive, with no mechanical fixings needed. The result is an automotive chassis with the strength and stiffness of a similar steel structure, but with over 60 percent saving in the overall chassis weight.