Delta Wing announces technical partnership

DeltaWing LLC, of Indianapolis, today announced an important step in making motorsports even safer in the future. DeltaWing’s prototype chassis for the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series will feature Milliken & Company’s revolutionary Thermoplastic Composite, Tegris®, which will make the DeltaWing car one of the lightest, most impact energy absorbent and intrusion resistant open wheel racing cars ever created.

“From the beginning of the DeltaWing project, enhancing safety was a top priority so we looked for new technologies that could be applied to make the chassis stronger and safer, while reducing mass at the same time" said Ben Bowlby, Designer and Chief Technology Officer of DeltaWing LLC. “Milliken’s Tegris material has excellent impact energy management characteristics while being extremely light weight. This is an example of a new material that has helped the DeltaWing design team achieve its extraordinary efficiency performance targets."

“Our designers were inspired by the remarkable properties of Tegris and the extensive application of the material in composite armor for US military vehicles," said Dan Partel, CEO of DeltaWing LLC.

“We are thrilled to be working with the DeltaWing team on one of the most revolutionary concepts in motorsports in many years," said Jonathan Kane, Global Market Manager, from Milliken & Company. “Tegris provides a unique combination of attributes which will allow DeltaWing to meet the exceptionally stringent safety standards of IndyCar racing. Additionally, Tegris is fully compatible with polypropylene recycle streams which helps DeltaWing meet its goal of helping motorsports become more sustainable and environmentally responsible."

Key Features of Tegris

· Impact Resistance
Tegris provides 2X to 15X improvement in impact resistance over typical thermoplastic and thermoset composites. Tegris maintains this performance level even at low temperatures (-40°C).

· Stiffness
Tegris is suitable for applications that have traditionally turned to carbon fiber or glass reinforcement to achieve stiffness requirements.

· Weight Reduction
Tegris allows for tremendous weight reduction at comparable stiffness compared to other, higher density, composite structures.

· Recyclability
Tegris is fully compatible with polypropylene recycle streams. While the material has uniquely engineered properties, these all return to standard PP upon full melting normally encountered in recycle extrusion.

· Glass/carbon-Free
Tegris is free from the safety and processing issues associated with glass or carbon-filled composites, namely skin irritation and tool wear.

Design Flexibility
Tegris allows for the creation of a wide variety of composite structures. A single layer of Tegris fabric is 0.005" (0.132 mm) thick and weighs 0.02 lbs/ft² (0.11 Kg/m²) which allows for composites to be "tuned" to a high degree of precision based on impact or stiffness requirements.
FIA approved for anti-intrusion
Tegris has met the FIA’s standard for anti-intrusion panel performance.

“This is the first of many technology partnerships that DeltaWing will announce in the near future as we work towards the debut of our first running prototype later this year," said Bowlby. “This is another example of the unique approach that has created the DeltaWing car and overall business model."