Trelleborg hits the brakes on weight increases
Technology has been designed to help reduce weight in cars
AE in Technology.
- Published in Technology.
Hybrid pedal: Use of fibre-reinforced plastic cuts weight
Trelleborg has launched a new lightweight brake pedal made from reinforced glass fibre and metal.
The technology has been designed to help OEMs reduce weight in their cars and cut CO2 emissions.
“Car manufacturers are continually looking to introduce lighter plastic materials in preference to heavier metal parts, not least because a 10% decrease in a vehicle’s overall weight reduces CO2 emissions by 5%”, said Loic Lefebvre, product engineer at Trelleborg.
The pedal is manufactured using a standard stamping process, and the metal insert is over-moulded at the plastic injection stage. The process uses water-injection technology to fuse the fibre-reinforced plastic to the metal.
The hybrid brake pedal’s blend of glass fibre-reinforced plastic and metal reduces weight by between 30 and 50% compared to a traditional all-metal pedal.
