Development of sustainable composite sandwich-panels using recycled and renewable materials for vehicle chassis construction at high volumes.

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Our project with Innovate UK will develop a new and sustainable composite sandwich panel construction, for primary vehicle structures, like the chassis. Our innovation is in the materials we are using, the design for manufacture and the method we use for construction.A composite is a material made up of 2 or more separate parts, in this case a high strength fibre and a resin which stiffens and strengthens it once hardened. A composite sandwich panel is a structure made from two thin sheets of composite material sandwiched on either side of a lightweight core resulting in extremely high stiffness for very low weight.Our innovative sandwich panel technology uses sustainable UK materials. This composite fibre material is waste from manufacturing processes in other industries and would usually go to landfill as non-biodegradable waste. Using waste materials significantly reduces our materials cost, by 85%-95%. This is important, as it makes large/commercial scale production of composite sandwich panels a viable reality.Current vehicle manufacture is costly, both monetarily and emission-wise. Our use of recycled lightweight materials reduces cost and emissions both during manufacture but also during use, as lower vehicle weight gives lower emissions and increased range. By using flat sandwich panels rather than monocoque construction we reduce the need for specialist equipment, extra consumables that produce waste plastic, and excessive labour. These alterations mean we have further cut the emissions of our production and reduced the input costs for manufacture even more.Even though these materials are recycled/sustainable, and the application of them is possible at a considerably lower cost than standard materials, we can use them to create an end product that has a higher stiffness to weight ratio than that of normal vehicles. That means that they are lighter, and stronger than they would be with conventional metal production methods.These materials and method of production will prove their sustainability and affordability with the release of our first product, the Elecy. The Elecy is a safe 4-wheeled ebike with an enclosed body, offering the comfort of a car with the \>90% lower emissions of bicycles. The Elecy will be 50% lighter than our closest competitor, Podbike's Frikar 4-wheeled ebike thereby proving the efficiency of our process.Once proved, we would like to help spread the use of this technology, as we believe this provides a route to a sustainable, low-impact automotive industry.