The FORCE II project (“realistic optimized fiber based on economical carbon”)

The European regulations force the French automotive companies to find solutions to comply with the CO₂ reduction down to 96 g/km by 2020. Lightening vehicles by integrating innovative composite parts into the cars structure is a serious way to reach this goal. However, current materials and processes used for the manufacturing of composite parts are too expensive to meet the economic requirements of the automotive industry. Thus, a consortium has been put together to develop an economical carbon fiber designed for automotive and leisure applications. This FORCE project gathers IRT Jules Verne, Arkema, CANOE, Chomarat, Décathlon, Faurecia, the PSA group, Mersen, Plastic Omnium, Renault, Stelia Composites, Tembec and Total. Optimization or removal of some process steps should reduce the costs in order to obtain an economical carbon fiber. The goal is to produce a carbon fiber that would cost less than 8€/kg, exhibiting mechanical performances around 2500 MPa tensile strength and 250 GPa elastic modulus. Results obtained by CANOE during the first year of the project will be presented during the « Biobased Materials and Composites » international conference that will take place in Nantes (France) on March 29^th-31^st 2017.