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Carsales Staff1 Mar 2015
NEWS

GENEVA MOTOR SHOW: EDAG Light Cocoon

The weight is over; nature-inspired concept car introduces advanced new manufacturing processes

A German firm rejoicing in the name of EDAG Engineering AG is pushing the boundaries of lightweight automotive design, and its latest project, the EDAG Light Cocoon, will take to the stage at Geneva next week.

Your eyes may glaze over reading the company's press release for the Light Cocoon, but ironically the technology being promoted within the release is an eye-opener.

The 16th concept car to be developed by the firm, the Light Cocoon is a sports car built around EDAG's 'Additive Manufacturing' principles and topped off by a synthetic, weatherproof fabric for the car's skin. As is apparent from these pictures, the additive manufacturing process (3D printing by another name) produces the lightweight aluminium space frame, and a triple-layer polyester fabric in a jersey knit is stretched over it. LEDs behind the fabric highlight the structural members of the car.

Supplying the high-tech fabric is a firm specialising in outdoor furnishings, Jack Wolfskin. Its Texapore Softshell O2+ in the show car application weighs just 154gsm – or about the same as two sheets of photocopy paper. It's claimed to offer elasticity qualities making it ideal for complex 3D forms.

"We are pursuing the vision of sustainability – as demonstrated by nature: lightweight, efficient, without any waste, and with a result that weighs considerable less" said EDAG head designer, Johannes Barckmann, as quoted in the press release.

"The result is the 'EDAG Light Cocoon': a stable, branch-like load bearing structure which meets all requirements imposed on structurally relevant components, despite the fact that less material has been used."

The Light Cocoon is light years away from production. That's a metaphor for distance from conception to outcome, not time. The production techniques could begin to find their way into current manufacturing plants within a short space of time, but the show car itself is not exactly a practical machine as a production prospect. It has been developed more as a talking point for the whole automotive industry, as EDAG CEO Jörg Ohlsen explains.

"With the futuristic concept of our 'EDAG Light Cocoon', we hope to stimulate the discussion about the future of lightweight construction and automobile production. As an engineering company, we see it as our task to make sure that we are today already working on future technologies and completely new approaches to vehicle development.

"When it comes down to it, working on concept car projects like the 'EDAG Light Cocoon' enables us to build up additional competencies within our teams, while at the same time also encouraging people to think outside the box and tread new paths in order to achieve the best possible technical solutions.

"The focus of people like us, who develop the cars of tomorrow, must always be on the day after tomorrow."

Supporting the show car's textile skin is what EDAG calls the bionic structure pioneered for the company's Genesis project that first saw the light of day this time last year – also at the Geneva show. Sounding like an idea taken out of science fiction, the Genesis project melds organic structural forms often found in nature – the turtle was the model for the Genesis structure – and builds them in lightweight metal using 3D printing techniques.

As EDAG's press release for Genesis explained: "Additive manufacturing will leave rapid prototyping fields of application behind, and add a further, revolutionary dimension to classical manufacturing and structural design methods."

In other words, building cars in the future could be little more expensive for a boutique manufacturer starting from scratch with a new design, than for a heavy industry-scale manufacturer building a car that has been in series production for years. The organic/bionic engineering motif lends the structure naturally strong energy absorption in a crash, according to EDAG. Additive manufacturing, as imagined by EDAG, comprises selective laser sintering (SLS), selective laser melting (SLM), stereolithography (SLA), and fused deposition modelling (FDM). So it's a far cry from the $200 inkjet printer sitting on a shelf at home next to the desktop computer.

This type of technology is to manufacturing what digital printing is to offset printing. Economies of scale will gradually cease to influence the cost of developing new products in the same degree they do today. According to EDAG, widespread adoption of additive manufacturing could lead to productivity gains worth 100 to 1000-fold, within 20 years.

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Written byCarsales Staff
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