Toronto, Ontario — Mazda has recently filed a patent application for a vehicle with a carbon fibre chassis in an effort to reduce the potential overall weight of the future vehicle designs.
To date, Mazda has never made a composite-chassis vehicle, but recently released technical documents from the Japanese automaker indicate that Mazda is looking to reduce the weight of future vehicles by utilizing cross-carbon fibre laminations.
The patent application describes how cross-carbon fibre laminations would be placed in different directions to create a “quasi-isotropic” material that could be applied to areas of the vehicle such as the roof-supporting pillars, frame rails and crash bumpers.
An isotropic material, the patent further notes, is a material that is strong in every direction that weight is applied to it.
The patent has been assigned to both Mazda and Nippon Steel Chemical and Material Co. Ltd, indicating that the Japanese automaker is potentially looking to work with a partner who has previous experience developing carbon fibre structures.
While there is no guarantee that this patent will ever make it to the manufacturing stage, the patent is in line with Mazda’s previous goals at reducing the weight of its vehicles. The automaker’s flagship vehicle, the MX-5 Miata, for instance, weighs under 2,400 pounds.
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