Research and Development of Innovative Structural Materials

Issues related to the improvement of automobile fuel efficiency include the improvement of power train efficiency (e.g., engines), vehicle weight reduction, and the mitigation of air resistance. Among these, vehicle weight reduction has a great impact on fuel efficiency improvement and is therefore an important issue to address under this project.

The goal of this project is to drastically reduce the weight of automobiles, aircraft, and train cars by developing the bonding technology necessary to suitably use innovative aluminum materials, titanium materials, magnesium materials, steel sheets, carbon fibers, and carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs).