NEW CONCEPT CAR DEVELOPED BY RINSPEED AND BAYER MATERIALSCIENCE
29 March 2006 - Bayer MaterialScience AG

Rinspeed's “zaZen”, a concept car developed by the Swiss car visionary Frank M. Rinderknecht in collaboration with Bayer MaterialScience AG, recently celebrated its world premiere and took center stage at the Geneva Motor Show with its revolutionary lighting technology and a large “teardrop” roof made of plastic. The highlight of the car is a smoothly contoured, single-section roof dome made from Makrolon, the tail-end of which incorporates a luminous holographic area that forms a third brake light. “During normal driving, the area is transparent and invisible, but when braking, the light shines as if from nowhere,” explains Johannes Seesing, car expert and spokesperson for the AutoCreative Team at Bayer MaterialScience. “Together with Rinspeed, we want to use the “zaZen” to get people thinking about the car of the future and showcase our expertise as a development partner for the international automotive industry.”

Amongst other things, the innovative feature of the holographic brake light is that it does not require a housing and therefore effectively requires no installation space. This opens up completely new design possibilities. In order to operate such a large-area light, a single, concealed, point-shaped light source, such as a red light emitting diode, is sufficient. The illuminated surface is considerably larger than the LED brake lights that are used today and is clearly visible to following traffic.

During the injection molding process, the entire transparent roof dome down to the belt line can be produced as a single section from the polycarbonate Makrolon AG 2677, which was specially developed for automotive glazing. A scratch-proof coating ensures the necessary robustness of the dome. If we compare this with a similar product made from glass, if it were even possible to produce such a thing, there is a huge saving in terms of weight. The appeal of the roof is that it does not have to be mounted onto the bodywork until the end of the assembly process. As a result, the interior of the car remains accessible from above during the entire car production process, which makes the assembly process significantly easier and results in huge cost savings.

The seats of the “zaZen” are an expression of minimalism and openness. The car's seat and backrest shells are made from transparent polycarbonate and were produced by thermoforming solid, eight millimeter thick Makrolon sheets. The seat and backrest cushions are made of a transparent polyurethane gel, also colorless, and the side cushions are made from an orange-colored polyurethane gel. Called Technogel, this lightfast gel enables a relaxed and comfortable sitting position. It is particularly flexible and elastic, smooth and warm to the touch, and contains no plasticizers or other volatile substances. It ensures optimum body pressure distribution over the seating area so that the muscles and the spinal column are effectively relaxed even on long journeys. The entire seating unit is supported by an aluminum frame.

The bodywork of the “zaZen”, which is based on a Porsche 997 Carrera S, sits on a chassis that can be adjusted in four ways. The front-end and tail-end consist of carbon fiber reinforced materials and are produced in molds made from Obomodulan modeling foam, a polyurethane sheet material based on a Desmophen polyether and a Desmodur isocyanate from Bayer MaterialScience. The sheets can easily be processed by milling and do not generate a great deal of dust, resulting in uniform, smooth surfaces with a low coefficient of thermal expansion. The edge strength of the resulting molds is high, so that the components can feature extreme geometries and narrow radii.

The coating of the “zaZen” is not bright and garish, but has a warm and attractive appearance. Precious Swarovski crystals, used for the first time in an automotive paint and contained in the base coat, are responsible for the white mineral shade. The coating system, from the primer and filler through to the top coat, is based on high-quality polyurethane coating raw materials from the Desmodur and Desmophen ranges, in addition to the water-based Bayhydur and Bayhydrol systems. A special feature is the self-healing top coat. Through skilful selection and fine tuning of the coating raw materials, it was possible to find a balance between two opposing effects. Increased elasticity usually means that sacrifices have to be made in terms of chemical resistance and weather resistance. For the “zaZen”, summer temperatures now ensure that surface scratches melt back into the top coat and disappear.

http://www.bayermaterialscience.com

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