Application of CFRT Thermoplastic Laminates in New Energy Vehicles and Sustainable Transportation Equipment
Release time:
2025-11-21
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Introduction
The global transportation industry is in a phase of rapid transformation, with new energy vehicles emerging as a crucial pathway to reduce carbon emissions and enhance energy efficiency. Electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, and fuel cell vehicles have placed unprecedented demands on overall vehicle lightweighting. Meanwhile, the rail transit and maritime transportation sectors are also pursuing low energy consumption, high efficiency, and sustainable operation. Material performance directly impacts vehicle weight, energy consumption, safety, and service life. However, traditional metal materials and thermosetting composites have inherent limitations in terms of lightweighting, toughness, and sustainability.
As an advanced high-performance material, CFRT (Continuous Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Laminates) combines lightweight properties, high strength, high toughness, and processability, providing an ideal material solution for new energy vehicles and sustainable transportation equipment. Based on material characteristics, engineering design, manufacturing processes, and practical application cases, this paper systematically elaborates on the application value of CFRT in new energy transportation equipment.
I. Alignment Between CFRT Material Properties and New Energy Transportation Requirements
New energy vehicles impose multiple requirements on structural materials:
High specific strength: Lightweighting directly affects the range of electric vehicles and fuel efficiency.
High toughness and impact resistance: Ensure vehicle safety under collision and vibration conditions.
Processability and functional integration: Adapt to complex structural designs and improve manufacturing efficiency.
Sustainability: Recyclable and reusable to reduce environmental impact of materials.
CFRT precisely meets these demands. Continuous fibers provide high strength and stiffness, the thermoplastic resin matrix offers toughness and energy absorption capacity, and the fiber-resin interface regulates stress transfer and crack propagation, achieving optimal overall performance. Compared with traditional thermosetting composites, CFRT delivers superior impact resistance while reducing weight. It can also undergo secondary processing and local repair through thermoforming, enabling the integration of complex structures and functions.
II. Overall Vehicle Lightweight Design
Weight control of new energy vehicles directly influences driving range and dynamic performance. The application of CFRT in vehicle bodies, chassis, internal structural components, and battery pack protection parts significantly reduces overall vehicle weight and improves energy utilization efficiency.
1. Vehicle Body Lightweighting
Electric vehicle bodies typically use steel or aluminum alloy materials. To ensure strength, increased sheet thickness is required, which adds to the overall vehicle weight. CFRT leverages continuous fibers for primary load-bearing capacity and thermoplastic resin for energy absorption and toughness retention, allowing the body sheet thickness to remain relatively thin while maintaining load-bearing capacity. In collision tests, CFRT door, roof, and floor structures exhibit characteristics of slow crack propagation, local energy absorption, and overall structural integrity.
Furthermore, through multi-angle layup design and finite element simulation optimization, CFRT bodies achieve an optimal balance between load distribution and weight control, reducing overall vehicle weight by 20%–35%. This weight reduction not only extends driving range but also improves acceleration performance and braking efficiency, directly contributing to the optimization of new energy vehicle powertrain systems.
2. Chassis and Suspension System Optimization
Electric vehicle chassis need to support the weight of the battery pack and withstand dynamic road loads. CFRT materials can be used to manufacture chassis crossbeams, control arms, and suspension supports. Continuous fibers provide high strength and stiffness, while the thermoplastic resin absorbs vibration energy and enhances fatigue life. Experiments show that CFRT chassis maintain structural integrity under repeated vibration loads, with a fatigue life approximately 50% longer than that of aluminum alloy. This performance improvement is particularly important for long-life, high-load new energy vehicles.
3. Battery Pack Protection and Lightweight Design
The battery pack is one of the heaviest components of new energy vehicles and has extremely high safety requirements. CFRT sheets can be used for battery pack housings and internal support structures, achieving both lightweighting and impact resistance. The tough thermoplastic resin absorbs energy, and the continuous fiber skeleton bears structural loads, ensuring the safety of the battery pack under collision or vibration conditions. Meanwhile, the overall weight of the battery pack is reduced by approximately 15%–25%, helping to extend driving range and improve power efficiency.
III. Rail Transit Lightweighting and Energy Efficiency Optimization
High-speed trains, urban rail vehicles, and subways have particularly prominent demands for lightweight materials. Reducing vehicle body weight not only lowers energy consumption but also improves acceleration and braking efficiency. CFRT thermoplastic laminates demonstrate significant advantages in rail transit body structures, doors, windows, suspension systems, and interior decorations.
1. Vehicle Body Structures
By using continuous fibers for high load-bearing capacity and thermoplastic resin for absorbing vibration and impact energy, CFRT body structures maintain overall integrity under bending and impact loads. Finite element simulations show that through layup angle and thickness optimization, vehicle body weight can be reduced by 15%–30%, and energy consumption of the entire train can be decreased by approximately 10%–15%, saving substantial energy during long-distance operations.
2. Doors, Windows, and Suspension Components
Rail vehicle doors, windows, and suspension systems move frequently and are prone to fatigue. Through the synergistic effect of continuous fibers and thermoplastic resin, CFRT materials effectively disperse loads, reduce vibration noise, and extend service life. Additionally, the thermoplastic nature allows local thermal welding repair, improving maintenance convenience.
3. Interior Decoration and Safety
CFRT sheets used for interior decoration parts of subways and urban rail vehicles can achieve lightweight, impact resistance, flame retardancy, and wear resistance. Continuous fibers ensure structural stability, and the tough, energy-absorbing thermoplastic resin maintains material integrity during daily use and accidental impacts, providing protection for passenger safety and comfort.
IV. Maritime New Energy Transportation Equipment
Maritime transportation equipment (such as electric ferries and hybrid ships) has extremely high requirements for material lightweighting, corrosion resistance, and safety. With its corrosion resistance, lightweight properties, and toughness, CFRT thermoplastic laminates have become an ideal material choice for maritime new energy equipment.
1. Hull and Bulkhead Structures
While maintaining strength and stiffness, CFRT hull sheets significantly reduce weight, enabling ships to increase load capacity or reduce energy consumption. Continuous fibers bear primary load-bearing capacity, and thermoplastic resin absorbs wave impact energy to prevent rapid crack propagation. In multiple wave impact simulation tests, CFRT hulls exhibit characteristics of slow crack propagation, local energy absorption, and overall integrity.
2. Internal Functional Components
The thermoplastic properties of CFRT allow for the integration of complex geometries and functions in internal marine functional components, such as integrated molding of bulkheads, decks, and support structures. Local damage can be repaired through thermal welding or local thermoforming, reducing maintenance costs and improving operational efficiency.
V. Advantages of CFRT in Sustainable Transportation Equipment
With the promotion of green manufacturing concepts, sustainability has become an important indicator for material selection. CFRT thermoplastic laminates demonstrate significant advantages in this regard:
Recyclability and secondary processingThe thermoplastic resin of CFRT can be recycled through heating and melting. Decommissioned or waste sheets can be remanufactured into non-structural or secondary structural components, reducing material waste and aligning with the concept of a circular economy.
High energy efficiency in productionCompared with thermosetting composites that require long curing times, CFRT lamination and thermoforming processes have shorter production cycles and lower energy consumption. They also support local repair and thermal welding, reducing overall production energy consumption.
Lightweighting improves energy utilization efficiencyWeight reduction of entire vehicles or trains lowers energy consumption and emissions, in line with the development trends of new energy vehicles and sustainable transportation equipment.
VI. Analysis of Application Cases
1. Electric Passenger Vehicles
A European electric vehicle manufacturer adopted CFRT body shells and chassis structural components, achieving an approximately 25% reduction in overall vehicle weight and a 10% increase in driving range. The collision energy absorption effect is superior to that of traditional aluminum alloy bodies. The thermoplastic nature allows local repair, reducing maintenance costs.
2. New Energy Rail Vehicles
High-speed trains using CFRT body sheets, doors, and windows achieved a 20% weight reduction for the entire train and a approximately 12% decrease in energy consumption. The vehicles maintain structural integrity under long-term vibration and impact, with improved maintenance convenience and reduced operational costs.
3. Electric Ferries
Electric ferry hulls using CFRT sheets achieved a 15% reduction in overall ship weight, extending driving range. Meanwhile, the material’s corrosion resistance and impact resistance meet the requirements of long-term maritime service. Internal structural components realize integrated design through thermoplastic processing, reducing the number of parts and maintenance complexity.
VII. Future Development and Technical Prospects
With the maturity of CFRT manufacturing processes, optimization of design methods, and expansion of application scenarios, its potential in new energy transportation equipment is enormous:
Functional integrated design: Thermoplastic properties support the embedding of pipelines, circuits, or sensors, enabling intelligent transportation equipment structures.
Green manufacturing and recycling: Circular utilization and low-energy consumption production will become future industry standards, where CFRT holds significant advantages.
Optimization of high-performance material systems: Higher specific strength and lightweight levels will be achieved through composite fiber selection, layup angle optimization, and multi-material lamination.
The application of CFRT thermoplastic laminates not only promotes the lightweighting of transportation equipment but also achieves comprehensive optimization of energy efficiency, operational safety, and sustainable development goals through the synergy of materials, structures, and processes.
Conclusion
CFRT thermoplastic laminates demonstrate significant value in new energy vehicles and sustainable transportation equipment. Continuous fibers provide high strength, thermoplastic resin offers toughness and processing flexibility, and interface synergy ensures slow crack propagation. Through advanced manufacturing processes and optimized design, CFRT achieves lightweighting, impact resistance, fatigue resistance, and functional integration, providing high-performance, low-energy-consumption, and sustainable solutions for road vehicles, rail transit, and maritime transportation.
In the future, with the development of new energy transportation equipment and the in-depth application of green manufacturing concepts, CFRT is expected to become an industry material standard, providing core support for the lightweighting and sustainable development of global transportation equipment.
