JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #137 - November/December 2020 - 40

FEATURE EV
Focus
Partner testimonials:
"Far-UK is pleased to see this project progressing. We are convinced that the skills of the consortium will help the project progress to a fully carbon fibre wheel that customers want to use
for the weight saving and that makes good economic sense to use as well," said Dr Kevin Lindsey, Director at Far-UK Ltd.

"The ACRIM II project is a great opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of using robots for secondary operations, including trimming and drilling of composite components," said Philippa
Glover, Managing Director at CNC Robotics. "Robots can offer a more cost-effective alternative
to conventional machine tools in these applications and so can contribute to lower overall manufacturing costs for these types of part."
"Bitrez welcomes the opportunity to maintain our involvement as the preferred sub-contract
resin supplier for the ACRIM II project, building on the successful collaboration as a full project
partner in ACRIM I, where our custom-formulated epoxy system provided both the high performance and cost targets required by the project," said Dominic Hopwood, Resin Sales Manager
- Composites at Bitrez Limited.
"Gordon Murray Design are pleased to be associated with the ACRIM II project. The main focus
of our iStream® technology is vehicle lightweighting, particularly important for electric vehicles
such as MOTIV® and other autonomous driven platforms. The opportunity to evaluate commercially-viable, lightweight carbon wheels will be invaluable for future projects," said Andy Smith,
R&D Director at Gordon Murray Design.
							
Source: ISRI

Focus
The MOTIV autonomous
vehicle platform
Part funded through the UK government's
IDP14 programme, the new platform
breaks the mould for future mobility development by creating a cost-effective,
ultra-lightweight quadricycle vehicle platform that is designed to meet full passenger-car crash safety requirements. Alongside its industry-leading safety credentials,
the new fully-electric unit is targeting significant cost savings and improved refinement over its rivals, while delivering the
range capabilities, platform flexibility and
plug-and-play versatility required by autonomous customers with personal mobility or commercial delivery requirements.
Gordon Murray Design and its consortium
partners Delta Motorsport and itMoves
unveiled MOTIV®, a unique and extremely
versatile autonomous vehicle platform in
London at the MOVE 2020 show.
www.gordonmurraydesign.com/en/products/current/motiv.html
®

high-volume capability and short route
to manufacture. The ACRIM modular
platform also enables a tiered approach
to OEMs in specifying lightweight
wheels depending on their appetite for
disruptive innovation.
The world's first commercially-viable,
low-cost, lightweight all-composite
wheel for electric and niche vehicles
such as driverless cars, last-mile delivery
vehicles, road sweepers and next-generation agricultural vehicles could now
soon be a reality.

MOTIV®, a unique and versatile autonomous mobility vehicle

particularly CFD material flow. Linking
these to analytical techniques will be a
powerful step forward. It also plans to
prove the manufacturing robustness of
the novel overmoulding process for a
high-reliability structural component.
Overmoulded all-composite wheel
The modular concept enables the

40

creation of wheels ranging from a "traditional" two-piece bolted metallic centre,
albeit with a composite barrel (mature,
low-risk architecture), through to an
overmoulded all-composite wheel.
The demonstration of an SMC overmoulded centre into a continuous fibre
RTM'd barrel offers an early indication of

jec composites magazine / N°137 November - December 2020

Previously seen to be purely performance-driven for racing and high-performance applications, lightweight carbon
wheels are now being investigated by
electric and niche vehicle manufacturers
and OEMs to further reduce fuel consumption and emissions, extend vehicle
range and increase payload.

More information:
www.carbonthreesixty.com
www.cncrobotics.co.uk
www.composite-integration.co.uk
www.far-uk.com
www.gordonmurraydesign.com
https://www.gordonmurraydesign.com/en/products/current/motiv.html http://www.carbonthreesixty.com http://www.cncrobotics.co.uk http://www.composite-integration.co.uk http://www.far-uk.com http://www.gordonmurraydesign.com
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #137 - November/December 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #137 - November/December 2020
