Materials: New processes and compounds make a difference
COURTESY OF NISSAN CANADA
Nissan developed a 'soft' clearcoat that can slowly flow back to fill any surface scratch, as on the Infiniti EX35.
Forty years ago, Popular Mechanics made a brisk business of selling visions of future cars that could outright fly or, alternatively, levitate on a network of magnetic highways by about the year 2010.
Looking around today, we have neither. But we can't say there's been a dearth of innovative thinking.
Your sedan still rides on four rubber doughnuts and burns aliphatic hydrocarbons – regular gas – but there's so much more that goes into the 21st-century automobile in terms of new materials.
Advanced High-Strength Steel
Like your father's Oldsmobile, cars are still made of steel for the most part, but what may surprise you is that 60 per cent of the steel grades used today were invented in the last seven years.
Driven to meet more stringent fuel efficiency standards, automakers are keen to adopt lighter materials to allow them to use smaller engines. Their flirtation with plastic and aluminum bodies prompted the steel industry to come up with a new breed of steel alloys.
The new steels, including ultra-high-strength steel and advanced high-strength steel (AHSS), enable the use of thinner components in the vehicle's structure. This saves weight and resources while increasing torsional rigidity and safety for the car's occupants.
AHSS is lighter, stronger, easier to form and has better crash-energy absorption. AHSS products have a minimum tensile strength of 500 to 800 MPa – equivalent to 116,000 pounds per square inch of pressure.
One-fifth of the body structure of the 2008 Mercedes-Benz C-class sedan is made of AHSS. The model earned environmental kudos for its performance in a life-cycle assessment, reducing by nine tonnes the amount of CO2 emissions over the estimated life of the vehicle.
High-strength steel is found in the unibody components of many new vehicles today, and they need not be expensive. About one-third of the Dodge Avenger's body is made of high-strength and ultra-high-strength steels.
Self-healing Paint
Automakers have been trying for decades to make their vehicles less susceptible to scratches. The conventional wisdom has been to develop harder grades of paint to give the surface a fighting chance.
The Nissan approach, and that of its research partners, the University of Tokyo and Advanced Softmaterials Inc., was to zig while others zag. They made their paint softer.
The result was the world's first synthetic, high-density clearcoat that could slowly flow back to fill any cut (scratch) in its surface. The healing process is aided by the heat of the sun or, to expedite things, the owner can pour warm water over its surface.
Unveiled four years ago, Scratch Shield helps a vehicle maintain its new look longer. According to Nissan, scratches from automated car washes account for the majority of abuse to painted car surfaces. It's also good for nicks due to off-road driving, as well as amateur polishing jobs.
What it won't do is forgive wanton acts of vandalism that compromise the base coat underneath; deep scratches still need the expert hand of an autobody professional. And the clearcoat reportedly loses its elasticity after about three years – just in time for the lease return.
Nissan's radical paint first appeared on the Infiniti EX35 in Canada, and will spread to other models. Other makers are keen to top it. Lexus will feature a similar finish on its LS luxury sedans, and paint-maker PPG introduced a refinish product called CeramiClear.
In-vehicle Air Quality
If upholstered furniture and carpets can make people sick in the home, Volvo reasoned, then an automotive interior can be an inhospitable environment, too.
With no international standards for in-vehicle air quality, Volvo created its own requirements as part of its obsession with holistic safety.
To that end, Volvo made sure all interior textiles it buys are certified to the international Oeko-Tex standard, requiring they be free of substances known to pose a risk to the health of people with allergies. Even the door handles must be made of an allergen-free metal.
Volvo has a strict limit for total volatile organic compounds (TVOC), as high levels in interior components leaching into the air could result in unpleasant smells, cause headaches, nausea, dizziness and could trigger asthma. Aldehydes have to be limited, especially formaldehyde, as they're known to cause both contact and respiratory allergies.
Emissions of TVOCs and aldehydes are measured from air samples taken inside the cabin. Because the release of emissions from interior materials is accelerated by high temperatures, test vehicles are parked under hot lamps until the interior reaches temperature of 65C, simulating a day parked in the sun.
Volvo even employs a "nose team" to sit in hot test vehicles and evaluate the interior smell on a subjective scale.
The test results are reported to the Swedish Asthma and Allergy Association to get their approval and recommendations.
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