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Carbon fiber is so last century. In a press release on Send2Press, CNT Technologies announced their carbon nanotube technology (CNT) has been named "one of the most innovative products of 2007" by the editors of R&D Magazine and MICRO/NANO Newsletter. They claim CNT fiber is one-tenth the weight of plebeian carbon fiber and 500% stronger than any other engineering material. CEO Robert Leary thinks his product will revolutionize manufacture of everything from automobiles to tennis rackets. "It is analogous to leaping in one bound from the Bronze Age to the age of high-strength steel and aluminum. Companies that do not have access to our product will simply be unable to compete and maintain market share." Um… Ok.
5 Comments on “CNT to Revolutionize Auto Manufacture?...”
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Time to throw out those oh-so-last-year carbon fiber hoods/mirrors/dash panels.
I wonder if you can paint this
I also wonder if it fails as catasrophically as carbon fiber does
sure, you’ve got some high-tech materials. but what do they cost? it reminds me of all the popular-mechanics-type “fuel efficient cars of the future” articles where they have a 1200lb vehicle made of all the latest steels, aluminums, and ceramics and gets 60mpg…but costs $300,000…
i doubt you’ll be seeing CNT corollas and civics and other bread-and-butter products anytime soon.
stronger, lighter, cheaper–pick two.
Getting closer to the Star Trek Replicator. Input a partical of existence and output anything from gum-drops to 787s. Not yet though. Maybe tomorrow.
I hope to live long enough to be able to buy a CNT shift knob for my vehicle…
Seriously, the stuff seems like a good idea until you think of recycling — the stuff is not unlike fiberglass; even if it was affordable, imagine junkyards filled with resin-encrusted carbon nanotube-mobiles; at least steel and aluminum are easily recovered. The uses for this “miracle material” are going to be a long time coming — unless they can find a way to make a steel formulation that incorporates CN for lightness. (Hmmm!)
I’m in an undergraduate Nanotechnology program, and I even don’t believe this. It will be a few years before CNT’s get into anything remotely mainstream, and will be a few years after that before they get into any larger devices/products. I can’t see them being used in mainstream cars in the near future, but possibly supercars etc etc.