Engineering and design company EDAG will showcase an unusual concept at the 2015 Geneva Auto Show called “Light Cocoon,” which uses new lightweight construction methods.
Following the Genesis study of a futuristic vehicle sculpture unveiled this year in Geneva, EDAG continues to research new ways of making automobiles lighter, with the Light Cocoon featuring a complete, bionically optimized vehicle structure combined with a weatherproof textile outer skin panel.
EDAG says the study marks a new dimension for lightweight construction and automobile aesthetics, as the skeleton-like, organic structure is illuminated using backlight technology.
For this concept, EDAG collaborated with outdoor specialists Jack Wolfskin, who provided their outdoor textile “Texapore Softshell” for the car’s “bodywork.” EDAG designers used a leaf as their inspiration for the lightweight outer skin. Just as with a leaf, which has an ideal structure with a lightweight outer skin stretched over it, a textile skin covers the EDAG Light Cocoon.
Instead of treating the body as a closed surface, any material not actually needed for the special load cases was removed. Furthermore, the branch-like load bearing structure it built by a 3D printer, which only uses material where it is absolutely necessary.
Jack Wolfskin’s weatherproof stretch fabric was deemed ideal to serve as the new outer body skin, especially since it’s strong and four times lighter than standard copier paper. “Even if it sounds futuristic to begin with, this approach has a its own special appeal: weighing no more than 19 g/m², the Jack Wolfskin material supports maximum lightweight design requirements with minimum weight,” says EDAG CTO Jörg Ohlsen.
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