Gordon Murray Design announces Toray Industries as technical partner

Gordon Murray Design has today agreed to enter into a technical partnership with Toray Industries which stems from the launch of the Teewave AR.1 at the Tokyo Motor Show in December 2011. The aim is to work together on several key areas, covering;
further development of Gordon Murray Design’s iStream manufacturing system, joint-research and development of materials and processes and exploring further opportunities for Toray’s materials in the automotive sector.

Toray Industries recently commissioned Gordon Murray Design to design, tool and build a fully functioning, running prototype 2-seater electric sports car, subsequently named the Teewave AR.1. The vehicle is representative of Toray’s fundamental approach concerning sustainability and high efficiency and utilises a whole range of Toray’s automotive products in its construction, including Toray advanced eco-materials and carbon reinforced plastic technology.  Teewave achieves ultimate performance characteristics due to a low weight of just 846 kg (including the Lithium-ion battery), carbon fibre composite panels and advanced crash structures.

For both Gordon Murray Design and Toray, the technical partnership presents an opportunity to combine their core capabilities to achieve technological advancements in; the use of carbon fibre and other key materials in volume production, the further development of structural thermoplastics, advanced crash structures and automotive safety. In so doing significant benefits can be made available in the areas of light-weighting, efficiency, cost, safety and sustainability.

Professor Gordon Murray, CEO & Technical Director of Gordon Murray Design Limited said of the technical partnership announcement, “Working with Toray on the Teewave programme was a great platform to launch a technical partnership from. We look forward to working together with Toray on many more ground-breaking technology programmes."

A Toray spokesperson said, “One of our targets for the future within the framework of this technical partnership is to pursue the concept of a hybrid chassis structure, having light-weight, advanced safety and high cost-efficiency characteristics, not only through the use of the  iStream architecture but also through other forms of hybrid structures.”

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