These raw materials can actually be used to build cars

High-strength aluminum bodies, carbon fiber composite materials, etc. have become materials that many manufacturers often use when designing concept cars. These materials are not only very light, but also have better strength and rigidity than traditional body materials. Many mass-produced models have even begun to use these materials.

However, for car designers, the real challenge is not these new materials, but the application of some seemingly impossible elements to the car body design, which often brings greater shock.

Lexus paper shell electric car

Lexus, a luxury car brand from Japan, came up with a sudden idea and launched this concept car called Origami Car. The entire body of this car is made of cardboard, and it is also a fully functional pure electric car, but the body and interior are made of cardboard as materials.

It is reported that this Lexus Origami Car cardboard car is made of more than 1,700 cardboards through laser cutting technology and combined with special wood glue. It is reported that it took three months to complete the splicing of this cardboard electric car.

However, we cannot see this car driving on the road for the time being, after all, the dashboard and seats are made of cardboard, which must be uncomfortable to ride. But I believe Lexus wants to tell everyone through this cardboard electric car that as long as you have an idea, everything will become a reality.

Toyota wooden electric car concept

As the world's largest automobile manufacturer, Toyota seems to be very keen on conceptual design and artistic creation recently. In addition to the Origami Car paper shell concept electric car designed by Lexus mentioned above, Toyota will now launch a Setsuna concept car with a body made of wood at the Milan Design Week which will open in April.

This concept car may really just be a concept car and will not be mass-produced. Instead, it is a work of art to showcase Toyota's car-making philosophy and craftsmanship. In fact, Setsuna has indeed left a deep impression on us.

Toyota said that the Setsuna concept car means "moment" in Japanese, and is the future expression of the era change between cars and humans. Different parts of the car use different materials of wood, and the texture of the wood will change over time.

In addition to the all-wood body, Setsuna also uses traditional Japanese craftsmanship. Professor Kenji Tsuji, who is in charge of the Setsuna project, said that Setsuna uses a technology called Okruiari, and all the assembly processes do not use any wooden nails, screws or even glue. It is this imagination that has made Toyota the most successful car manufacturer.

In addition, this wooden car also uses electricity as a power source, but Toyota did not disclose the range and power details. Setsuna's body is made of Japanese cedar wood, while the frame is made of Japanese birch wood. Professor Kenji Tsuji said: "We used different woods by evaluating the different forces on the body, and paid special attention to the size and arrangement of different parts."

Lexus "Ice Tires"

This time it's Lexus again. An ice sculpture team in Hamilton, England, created ice sculpture wheels for the car manufacturer Lexus and installed them on real cars for testing. The results showed that the car could actually drive slowly.

It is reported that the team spent three months on design, research and testing. First, the sculptors laser scanned the parts of the real Lexus NX, and then copied its tires, including details such as the patterns on the tires. Each frozen wheel took four sculptors 36 hours of work, and the wheels were also equipped with LED lights to make the car look cooler. Each wheel and tire were recreated based on real parts to fit the real car. In order to prevent the ice sculpture wheels from being crushed by the weight of the car itself, acrylic spokes were added inside for reinforcement.

The carving team used flowing softened water to make ice so that it looked crystal clear. Jack Hackney, a sculptor involved in the project, said: "We need to design a perfect outline and bold details." Before the ice sculpture tires were installed on the real car for testing, the staff also parked the entire test car in a low temperature environment of minus 22 degrees Celsius for 5 days to ensure that the ice sculpture wheels would not melt prematurely.

Full size Lego car

Lego bricks can be said to be the most famous toy in the world. This toy is very simple, but it is extremely difficult. Therefore, assembling a car has become a challenge for Lego fans.

Steve Sammartino and Raul Oaida, two young men from Australia and Romania, built a 1:1 car with Lego bricks. This car is not only the same size as a car, but more importantly, it has a real power unit and plastic pistons, and can be driven on the road. However, due to the fragile frame of the entire car, its maximum speed is only set at 20 kilometers per hour. If it is too fast, it may cause an explosion.

This Lego car project is called "Super Awesome Micro Project" and it took 20 months from concept, design to finished product. The car uses more than 500,000 building blocks, with only a few structural parts such as tires, steering wheels and dashboards. The engine part contains four track engines, composed of 256 pistons, powered by gas.

Oaida built the car in Romania and shipped it to a secret location in Melbourne for a test drive on suburban streets. Some damage occurred during the shipment, but Oaida said he could fix everything except for the material warping due to temperature changes.

Composite fiber plastic engine

In addition to the entire car body, the engine, as one of the most core components of the car, can also be made of plastic, a material that is difficult for us to imagine. After all, more and more consumers will consider its sports performance and fuel performance when buying a car. In addition, from the current development trend, environmental protection has also become a very interesting field. If you want to make the car more fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly, reducing the weight of the car itself is a very reliable way. In order to effectively reduce the weight of the car, the Fraunhofer project team recently began to plan to use engineering plastics to manufacture some parts of the car engine.

In order to become the material of the engine, this special plastic must not only be able to withstand the high temperature inside the engine, but also have very strong pressure resistance, while also considering cost and production capacity issues. However, the Fraunhofer project team took a completely different approach and injected reinforced fiber plastic with the help of laboratory engines, a method that has been used in aluminum engines before. Lars-Fredrik Berg, Fraunhofer project manager, said: "We have built a single-cylinder laboratory research engine using reinforced fiber composite materials, which is 20% lighter than traditional ultra-light aluminum engines, and the cost is basically the same."

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.