Chrysler to make plastic vehicles

From: Yakov Horenstein (yakov@planet.it)
Date: Tue Sep 08 1998 - 14:02:08 EEST


                       Chrysler to make plastic vehicles
                           (Waikato Times; 09/04/98)

  Chrysler has given the go-ahead for a development centre to produce the
company's unique plastic injection moulding technology that would be
capable of building a plastic-bodied car from just 12 pieces.

A conventional steel-bodied car requires 80-90 metal parts and the result
is a heavier vehicle that costs more.

An injection-moulded plastic body could be built for 20 per cent of the
cost, says Chrysler, which unveiled a prototype last year, called the CCV,
targeted at developing nations and also featured in the Pronto Spyder
concept sports car.

The colour is moulded into the plastic panels during production and the
need for a separate paint shop is eliminated.

The proposed development centre will be built in Novi, Michigan in a 6500
sq m facility.

The facility will be used to test the economic viability of the technology.
If it succeeds, the first injection moulded plastic- bodied car could go
into production early in the 21st century.

For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 22:46:38 EEST