Why Carbon Fiber Prototyping Is Replacing Metal in Modern Design
Michigan automotive supplier testing electric vehicle battery enclosure prototypes faced challenge: aluminum design weighed 8.4 kg, exceeding 6.5 kg target affecting vehicle range. Traditional lightweighting (thinner walls, topology optimization) risked structural integrity. Solution: Carbon fiber composite prototype—5.1 kg final weight (39% reduction vs aluminum), 2.3× flexural rigidity improvement, withstood 50,000-cycle vibration testing vs aluminum’s 28,000-cycle

