Nifco completes industry-changing automotive project

Nifco UK has brought a potentially industry-changing project to a successful conclusion after 12 months of development.

The R&D team, which manufactures parts used in the engines, interiors and exteriors of cars produced by Ford, General Motors, Honda, Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan, Renault, Toyota, and Vauxhall, has worked in collaboration with material supplier Celanese and prototyping company Graphite AM, to design, prototype and test a new engine bracket which could bring significant benefits to the running of the vehicle.

Steve Garrett, R&D Manager for Nifco, said: “This product, a bracket which supports the powertrain and withstands all the loads from the engine during and operation, is a significant piece of kit and is traditionally made using aluminium.”

“We’ve tested various materials to be able to design and develop the same bracket using long glass fibre reinforced plastic, providing a weight saving of 50 per cent, contributing to a reduction of CO2 emissions, or in the case of an electric vehicle, extending range.”

Adam Hall, Account Development Manager at Celanese, said: “I am delighted by the high level of performance achieved by such a lightweight thermoplastic component, replacing steel in aggressive, high-load automotive applications.”

“This innovative solution, enabled by the close working partnership between Nifco Design Engineers and Celanese’s CAE Engineering team from the start of the project, maximised the superior mechanical performance brought by Celanese’s long glass fibre reinforced Celstran LFRT technology.”

Neil Furber, Technical Sales Engineer at Graphite Additive Manufacturing, said: “We were delighted to support this project. This is one of the most demanding applications for our in-house developed Carbon SLS material to date and demonstrates that it can be a fully-structural material rather than only semi-structural or very simple prototypes.”