Westfield to work with Boeing on ‘world’s lightest material’ project

WESTFIELD Sportscars is to work with aerospace giant Boeing and universities in the UK, US and China on a project linked to using ultra light material in its vehicle manufacturing. 

Kingswinford-based Westfield has recently been awarded some Niche Vehicle Network funding to investigate the potential uses of microlattice in the niche vehicle sector.

Microlattice was created by Boeing, which announced to the world in October that it had created the world’s lightest material. It is light enough to rest on a dandelion’s head.

Current plans are to use it in non-structural parts of an aircraft, providing a large weight reduction.

Microlattice is a synthetic porous metallic material consisting of an ultra light metal foam. It is one of the lightest structural materials known to science.

Voted as one of the top ten world innovations, it is 100% lighter than Styrofoam.

Westfield is looking to use microlattice in its vehicles.

CEO Julian Turner said, “Due to the space constraints of our vehicles we have to innovate with materials and technology to enhance the products for our customers. 

“We are very excited to be working with Microlattice as a complementary material in the vehicle. Microlattice has very different material  properties to Carbon which is glass like in its structure so we are very excited to be given the opportunity to work on the project.

“This material is a game changer for our vehicles.”