why have cars gone from being steel bodied to aluminium and glass fibre bodied?

Question

this is for a college project, any detail and info and references would be gratefully recieved.

Answer 1

The materials are cheaper and more abundant. It also helps keep the weight of the car down significantly increasing the miles per gallon.

Answer 2

In every engineering project there are tradeoffs. The qualities one might choose will depend on many things: cost, fuel efficiency, body design, etc.

Steel is generally cheap and durable. Aluminum is more expensive but lighter, stronger, and potentially less durable than steel. In cases where steel is damaged, it is possible to bend it back into shape with a slight reduction in functionality. Aluminum, on the other hand, can rarely be bent back to the original shape and hold its higher strength.

Similarly, fiber glass structures are lighter, but they are more suspectible to catastrophic damage. If you break fiberglass, it is harder to repair than either aluminum or steel. Sometimes your only option for damage is replacement. This can be expensive for aluminum and fiber glass.

But, this is all basic materials properties and design considerations. I don't have any specific references.

Answer 3

Because of the epa rules that were started in the 1970's, car manufacturers had to increase fuel mileage of cars(the cafe rules).Smaller car engines would get lower mpg's if the cars remained made of steel.To reduce weight and increase mpg's manufacturers had to use lighter components.As a result of these rules and practices,auto accident related deaths have increased dramatically since the 1980's.

Answer 4

This isn't very common actually, and any aluminum and fiberglass cars are usually more expensive to make than their steel counterparts. They are lighter than steel though, which helps in sports car applications. Also, they are usually good for low volume types of cars, since the tooling doesn't have to be as tough and expensive as dies for forming steel body pannels.

Answer 5

utilising a low density metallic like aluminum keeps the entire mass of the motorized vehicle down. Aluminum's density of two.7-g/cm³ is two.9 cases smaller than metallic's (7.8-g/cm³). for an similar length motorized vehicle (similar volume) the only built of aluminum will be 2.9 cases lighter. the cost of this for sure is emphasised through Newtons second regulation of action a = F/m - the acceleration produced through a given stress is inversely proportional to the mass of the speeded up merchandise. In different words, the gas economic equipment will be better effective if the mass is kept as low as conceivable.

Answer 6

aluminum is cheaper and lighter. in todays society and competition among todays big name automakers, aerodynamics plays a big part. also, a lighter vehicle means quicker 0-60 times. an all aluminum engine thrusting a steal car or truck vs an all aluminum car. who'd win.

Answer 7

Two primary reasons.

Can you say "EMISSIONS CONTROL"?
With the alternative materials, the vehicles are lighter, and just as strong, so the emissions are lower because the engine doesn't have to produce as much power to drag the dead weight around.

Can you say "RECYCLE"?
The alternative materials can be more easily recycled, and thus we use less raw material.

Answer 8

Aluminum and fiberglas are not as dense as steel. Less weight (mass) makes for higher fuel efficiency, higher power/weight ratio, less rust-through damage, etc., etc.
Also it makes for greater damage when 'dinged' in the parking lot, higher costs when repairing, less protection in crashes, greater likelihood of aftermarket sales of body panels, etc.,etc.

Answer 9

Weight reduction to achieve federal mpg requirements.

Answer 10

This is not true most cars are still made of steel.