Gordon Murray Design (Shalford, Surrey, U.K.) announced that it has agreed to enter into a technical partnership with carbon fiber manufacturer Toray Industries (Tokyo, Japan) focusing on development of composites technologies for automotive applications. The agreement stems from the launch of Gordon Murray Design's two-seat electric car, TEEWAVE AR.1, at the Tokyo Motor Show in December 2011. The agreement will work on several key areas, covering further development of Gordon Murray Design’s iStream manufacturing system, joint research and development of materials and processes and exploring further opportunities for Toray's materials in the automotive sector.
Toray commissioned Gordon Murray Design to design, tool and build a fully functioning, TEEWAVE AR.1. The vehicle is representative of Toray's fundamental approach concerning sustainability and high efficiency and uses a range of Toray's automotive products in its construction, including advanced eco-materials and carbon fiber composites. TEEWAVE weighs 846 kg/1,865 lb (including Lithium-ion battery) and features carbon fiber composite panels and advanced crash structures.
Professor Gordon Murray, CEO and technical director of Gordon Murray Design, says, "Working with Toray on the TEEWAVE program was a great platform to launch a technical partnership from. We look forward to working together with TORAY on many more ground-breaking technology programmes.”
A Toray spokesperson says, “One of our targets for the future within the framework of this technical partnership is to pursue the concept of a hybrid chassis structure, having light-weight, advanced safety and high cost-efficiency characteristics, not only through the use of the iStream architecture but also through other forms of hybrid structures.”
The iStream process is a simplified automotive assembly process that allows a manufacturing plant to be designed 20 percent of the size of a conventional factory. gordon Murray Design says this could reduce capital investment in the assembly plant by approximately 80 percent.
