Bubble-Infused Plastic Could Help Make Ford's Cars 750 Pounds Lighter : TreeHugger

Bubble-Infused Plastic Could Help Make Ford's Cars 750 Pounds Lighter


the simplest way to make a car, plane, whathaveyou more eco-friendly is just to make the whole damn thing lighter. All well and good, but how do you make sure that those industrial-grade plastic parts maintain their strength once you lighten them up? A technology developed at MIT called MuCell, and now being explored by automakers like Ford and Cadillac, has an answer. And that answer is: just add bubbles.

 

Very interesting. However, I'ma stick with my cast iron. Plastic doesn't seem to age as gracefully.

How about saving weight by going back to OHV and stick shift, and getting rid of emissions crap? Jus sayin....

Don't mean to **** on your find. That is a very cool idea, maybe they could make stuff other than cars out of that stuff.

 

I am against plastic for any automotive parts exposed to heat, stress or sunlight, almost sounds like the whole car.

I have a lincoln LS and the plastic engine parts in the cooling system all seem to like to fail around the same time. The parts become brittle and then fail. They are so crumbly, you can crumble them with your fingers. Replacement cost for parts alone is around $800, how about that for routine maintenance every 80,000 miles or so.


Can't remember the last time I replaced any cast iron part on any of my cars. So I might give up 1 mpg if it saves me from replacing parts all the time or worse getting stuck on the road.

Steel, Aluminum or maybe glass fiber reinforced plastic, but keep that foamy plastic away from me.

 

Not so long ago you would have ended up in prison for selling air, at ridiculous prices, to unsuspecting members of the public.