Re-engineering Cars to be Lighter

Vehicles are the worst polluter of the atmosphere with emissions clogging up the air around us in almost all big cities. Part of the problem is that they use fossil fuels that are not quite as efficient in burning. Another part is that vehicles are heavy mechanical beasts that need tremendous power to be pulled.

At the Indian Institute of Technology a research academy scholar Abhishek Tripathi has begun an experiment to make vehicles lighter. By reengineering the vehicles he hopes to make them more efficient in burning fuel. He has turned to magnesium instead of aluminum to make the frame of his vehicle lighter.

Magnesium is half the weight of aluminum and would work well in theory. However it is also a very brittle metal and can’t always be molded into the shapes required for automobile parts. Instead of using conventional processing techniques such as rolling, forging and extrusion, Tripathi is experimenting with a new technique called Friction Stir Processing or FSP.

FSP is a shorter solid-state processing technique which will be able to make structural changes quickly and in a single step. FSP will be able to address refinement and densification homogenously and fast. This is one science project that could have a major impact on the way vehicles are designed in the future.