Coco Fiber Interior Components Show Promise
Bioengineering is one of the most promising technology trends out there, but besides a perennial design influence, nature tends to stay away from cars. Or is it the other way around? Anyway, biodiesel tends to hog the bio-car development attention, but a LiveScience post sheds some light on efforts to introduce vehicle interior components made from organic materials. A team from Baylor University have been experimenting with coco fibers, and have developed trunk liners, floorboards and car-door interior covers made from a coco-based composite material. “(Coco) fiber has very good strength, stiffness and ductility, and potentially can be used for all kinds of things,” says Baylor engineering professor Walter Bradley. Bradley’s team blends coconut husk material with polypropylene fibers before being hot-pressed (compression-molded) into required shapes. The coconut fiber provides a rigid architecture for the resulting material, which Bradley says does not burn very well or give off toxic fumes, which is key in passing tests required for use in commercial automotive parts. Bradley also extolls the virtue in using a waste by-product of the coconut milk and oil industry. “We are trying to turn trash into cash to help poor coconut farmers,” he tells LiveScience. The team is partnering with a local auto industry fiber supplier to develop commercial products.
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I guess you folks are too young to remember woodys. Every thing old is new again.
Cashew nuts are the good brake pads - the cheapo items are made of chicken crap. Either way it's better than asbestos, which was common even into the 90s; I worked on a lot of bikes that had big orange warning stickers to remind you that the clutch and brake compounds were loaded with everyone's favourite carcinogen. Personally I like to stick to sintered metallic compounds, unless I have iron ductile rotors (organic only for those). I wonder what the rot properties are of these organic materials. If its biodegradable, that means it can rot away before you junk the car if they aren't sufficiently protected from moisture ingress. When car makers STILL haven't figured out how to completely prevent rusting (hint: aluminum, stainless steel, and double galvanizing. Auto engineers can send me a cheque for my brilliance, thanks), I sure as hell don't trust them to make an organic composite that will last a lifetime. I'm always a little leery of new compounds; just look at the Bricklin, that space-age acrylic bodywork rotted away to the point that nowadays you have to have new panels made to spec by a single fellow working out of the US - there are no spares, because they all rotted to crap.
The berber-style carpet in our house is made from coconut husk fibers, and it is great stuff, much better than polyester/nylon pile. Similar materials (sisal, jute, hemp, seagrass, palm fiber, kapok, flax, etc) have been used for ages for rope, cordage, and twine before being replaced by synthetics, why not go back to using them as a synthetic substitute?
So what gives here? Any bad environmental side effects like old growth jungle getting plowed under for coconut groves? You know - killing off the diversity of the jungle? Just curious b/c too many "green" techs have some negative hidden side effects. If it works and is truly good for us - let's do it.