plastic

Ford will use recycled plastic bottles from the upcoming North America International Auto Show in Detroit and Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in the seats of its Ford Focus Electric, as the automaker found a method to use recycled plastics in the polyester fiber used in the car's seat ...

Ford and the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company are researching the use of coir (coconut fiber) as a reinforcement for the automaker's molded plastic components. The coconut coir (or husks, as they are more commonly called) currently make up a waste stream from Scotts' soil and seed division. Once the ...

Made from plastic waste, the Frii Bicycle is Dror Peleg's dreamy solution to urban transportation. As Peleg explains, "components would be injection molded into modular shapes that snap together to form a strong, lightweight and very colorful single-speed bike for quick trips through the city ...

Stringent fuel economy guidelines unveiled by the Obama administration in late July will force the automotive industry to explore cost-effective lightweight materials for use in future vehicles, ...

Houston-based Greenstar Recycling has teamed up with Cleveland-based Vadxx Energy to convert recovered (a.k.a. recycled) plastic into synthetic crude oil. Under terms of this joint venture, Greenstar and Vadxx will work hand-in-hand to provide a domestically manufactured fuel made entirely from ...

Engineers at Ford have taken inspiration from Nestle's Aero chocolate bar to produce lightweight MuCell (aka microcellular plastic foam) plastic parts by injecting them with gas bubbles during the manufacturing process. The injection of gas creates a honeycomb structure with a cross-section that ...

There's been plenty of talk about carmakers moving to lighter materials like carbon fiber to reduce weight, improve fuel economy and enhance the driving experience. Two years ago, Honda and Nissan formed a consortium to research the mass-market implementation of carbon fiber. Last year, BMW ...

It's no secret that we generate a phenomenal amount of garbage, especially here in the United States, and a lot of that trash consists of plastics. Plastics hit us in a number of ways. Most plastics are are produced, at least in part, from petroleum and the plastics don't decompose when put it in ...

Automakers and consumers alike all want lighter cars. "Adding lightness" has a lot of desirable effects, most notably in overall fuel efficiency and performance. While numerous efforts have been made to reduce the weight of automobiles – including downsizing, subtracting unnecessary ...