In a carbon clincher road wheel application, CIMERA® fiber was evaluated against a monolithic CFRP reference construction. Depending on the design target, the sandwich construction enables three distinct optimization paths:
- Same stiffness, less weight - reduce fiber ply count while maintaining structural performance
- Same stiffness, less fiber - achieve the performance target with lower carbon fiber content, reducing material cost
- Higher local stiffness, same weight - increase stiffness in load-critical zones without adding mass
The appropriate path depends on the specific design constraints and cost targets of the application.