JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #67 - August/September 2011 - 18

sustainability

Crossing Australia almost exclusively on wind energy

The Wind Explorer pilot vehicle is a two-seated electromobile that weighs just 200 kg and has a range of 400 km per battery charge. The bodywork consists mainly of a carbon-fibre composite with Rohacell® structural foam from Essen, Germanybased Evonik Industries. Its lithium-ion batteries, based on yet another Evonik technology, are charged by a mobile wind turbine or – in exceptional cases – in the conventional way from the power grid.
within 30 minutes. The Wind Explorer was propelled partly by parasail-style kites in addition to wind power, achieving in this way a maximum speed of about 80 kilometres per hour on the approximately 4,900kilometre stretch from Albany on the Indian Ocean to Sydney. Only in exceptional cases did the pilots resort to electricity from conventional sources.

Thanks to its lightweight construction with a structural core of Rohacell® foam, the Wind Explorer weighs just 80 kilograms without the batteries and wind turbine.

jec composites magazine / No67 August - September 2011
DR. URSULA KEIL MARKETING SUPPORT HIGH PERFORMANCE POLYMERS EVONIK, GERMANY

n late January of 2011, German extreme sports enthusiasts Dirk Gion and Stefan Simmerer made international headlines with their pioneering 17-day journey across Australia in this electric vehicle powered by wind and lithium-ion batteries. The pilots could recharge flat batteries using either a mobile wind turbine or from the grid in the usual way, depending on the wind situation. The wind turbine and a 6-metre-high telescopic bamboo mast are set up

Lighter and further

When they built the electromobile, the duo opted for a tried-and-proven lightweight construction material: a sandwich structure of carbon-fibre fabric and a structural core of Evonik's Rohacell® polymethacrylimide (PMI) rigid foam. This composite has been used with great success for many years in aircraft, helicopters, trains, and ships, and is also rapidly gaining ground in automotive construction: Rohacell®

structures allow weight savings of 60% or more over conventional steel parts. “Every gram of weight saved reduces CO2 emissions in conventional fuel vehicles and increases the range of the electric vehicles of the future,” says Stefan Plass, who is responsible for Rohacell® business at Evonik, describing the driving force behind developments for the automotive industry. The high rigidity of the foam also improves the inherent rigidity of the components. And thanks to the high thermal resistance of the material, three-dimensional cores are easily produced by thermoforming with short cycle times. Rohacell® is CFC-free and, in compliance with Directive 2000/53/EC on end-of-life

vehicles, heavy-metal-free. It is also listed in the IMDS. Tests at KTH Aeronautical and Vehicle Engineering in Stockholm and the University of Cranfield, and by Lotus Engineering, testify to its excellent crash properties. n
More information: www.rohacell.com

More information
For more than 30 years, Evonik's Rohacell® structural foam has been offering the aerospace and automotive industries, medical technology, and other markets boundless possibilities for lightweight construction of parts or products made from high-performance composites. In such applications this polymethacrylimide-based material is used as a core between, for example, CFRP facings.

http://www.rohacell.com

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #67 - August/September 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #67 - August/September 2011