We are no strangers to auto industry here at this blog. How can we not if it is a constant source of innovation and cutting edge technologies? So we got one more concept from ZF guys. This auto supplier from Germany has shown an alternative way to construct a MacPherson strut which uses a significant amount of carbon fiber in its production. I can sense images of sports cars popping up in your mind. Well hold it. It’s for small city-cars and yes, it sounds like despite benefits of lower mass and higher strength carbon fiber will be too expensive to be used in small cars. ZF engineers say they have found their way round it.Before talking about price issues, let’ outline the sweet spot in using carbon fiber in suspension parts. At the moment of writing it is only known that the new MacPherson strut is no more than 9lbs (4kg) lighter than today’s average. That doesn’t sound like much. But as an active element of suspension in a small car it is enough to affect handling. Manufacturing turns out to be not too complex: it uses fiberglass spring, integrated wheel mounting, bits of plastic here and there and damper tubes remains from steel. Because this technology uses fewer number of parts and carbon fiber looks like it comes in one solid piece, engineers say that its cost is comparable with modern units. With further development carbon fiber MacPherson strut can be ported to bigger vehicles while smaller ones might start shipping with it in 2014.
