·         intervention on the powertrain: improve combustion, improving the engine control, reduce mass, friction, inertia and the tolerances of couplings;

·         increase efficiency: improving aerodynamic penetration, reduce friction and rolling resistance;

·         reduction of the vehicle mass: reduce the chassis mass, body, interior and moving parts.

The sustainable approach to reduced vehicle weight is the growing use of high performance/density materials (eg. ultrahigh-strength steels, technopolymer, composite materials, an alloy of aluminum and magnesium, metal foams, cast iron high-performance, etc ), through replacement strategies, integration strategies and finally to contemporary use of dissimilar materials (multi material), which specialize in materials and technologies for the required functions.  

CRF public projects on the materials to reduce vehicle weight

SPRINCOM – Improved prediction of sprinback for UHSS stamped components (2008 – in corso)

POCO- Carbon Nanotube Confinement Strategies to Develop Novel POlymer Matrix Composites

(2008 – in corso)

NANOTOUGH - Nanostructured Toughened Hybrid Nanocomposites for High Performance Applications (2007 – in corso)

SLC - SuperLightCar (2005 – in corso)

Componenti in compositi ad late prestazioni utilizzando processi RTM/RFI - (2004-2007)