You’ve probably seen it being used in construction and as the main food source for pandas. Now, Ford is looking to one of the world’s strongest natural materials – bamboo – to be used in vehicle interiors.
According to the company, bamboo performs widely better than other synthetic and natural fibres that are tested in a range of materials tests. This includes tensile strength tests to impact strength tests, and even temperature tests, where the material is heated to 212 degrees Fahrenheit to ensure it can maintain its integrity.
“Bamboo is amazing. It’s strong, flexible, totally renewable, and plentiful in China and many other parts of Asia,” said Janet Yin, a materials engineering supervisor at Ford’s Nanjing Research & Engineering Centre.
In addition, bamboo only requires two to five years to grow to full maturity, so it regenerates quickly as compared to other trees that require decades. Over the past few years, Ford has worked with suppliers to assess the viability of using bamboo in vehicle interiors and to create a super hard material by combining it with plastic.
Ford’s usage of sustainable material is pretty widespread, and can be found in a variety of its vehicles. For instance, kenaf, a tropical plant in the cotton family, is used in the door bolsters of Escape, while EcoLon post-consumer nylon carpeting is used as cylinder head covers in Escape, Fusion, Mustang and F-150.
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p.ramlee envisioned this decades ago.. ekzos buluh better than ekzos besi
sustainable owez gud. bamboo kat Mesia kitorang buat Meriam.
Great! After this I can hear a new excuse from the Ford Service Centre “Brader, your car got gnawed by the Panda. We don’t know how it happen, too high tech la the car”…
Then after bamboo habis, pakai apa?