In the 1910s Henry Ford experimented with using agricultural materials in the manufacture of automobiles. Ford was partly motivated by a desire to find nonfood applications for agricultural surpluses, which existed then as they do now. He tried out many agricultural crops, including wheat.
Coil cases for the 1915 Model T Ford were made from a wheat gluten resin reinforced with asbestos fibers.
Eventually he focused on soybeans, and in the 1920s began promoting soybean products at every opportunity.
He recruited Robert Boyer, a young chemist, to lead the research.
In the following few years, uses were found for soy oil in automobile paints and enamels, in rubber substitutes, and in the production of glycerol for shock absorbers.
Viscous solutions of soy protein were extruded and "set" in formaldehyde bath to form fibers for upholstery cloth.
But Ford’s special interest was in converting soy meal into plastics.
Soy meal is what is left after soy-beans are crushed or ground into flakes and the soy oil extracted with a hydrocarbon solvent.
Soy meal is about 50 percent protein and 50 percent carbohydrate- mainly cellulose.
The compositions of Ford’s soy plastics, and the methods of their processing, evolved over time and varied according to the application.
In general the resin core was made of soy meal reacted with formaldehyde to produce cross-linked protein (reminiscent of casein plastics and animal horn), but for added strength and resistance to moisture, phenol or urea was cocondensed with the protein.
The resulting resin was part phenol formaldehyde (or urea formaldehyde) and part cross-linked soy protein; the soy meal was not merely a filler.
The condensation took place in the presence of the cellulose and other carbohydrates that were part of the soy meal.
Fillers, up to 50 to 60 percent, provided additional cellulose fibers, from hemp, wood flour or pulp from sprice or pine, cotton, flax, ramie even wheat.
The final mix was about 70 percent cellulose and 10 to 20 percent soy meal.
When additional strength became necessary, glass fiber was also used.
Relatively low pressures and temperatures were used in the molding process.
Soy meal plastics were used for a steadily increasing number of automobile parts- glove-box doors, gear-shift knobs, horn buttons, accelerator pedals, distributor heads, interior trim, steering wheels, dashboard panels, and eventually a prototype exterior rear-deck lid.
Finally Ford gave the go-ahead to produce a completely prototype "plastic car," including an entire plastic body.
The body consisted of fourteen plastic panels fixed to a welded tubular frame (instead of the customary parallel I-beam frame).
The panels and frame each weighed about 250 pounds.
The total weight of the automobile was 2,300 pounds, roughly two-thirds the weight of a steel model of comparable size.
 Henry Ford tries out his first car What was it made from? Plant based materials- including hemp "the axe bounced, and there was no dent..."
Ford, a master at generating publicity, exhibited the prototype with great fanfare in 1941.
But then, by late 1941, Ford no longer publicized the "plastic car".
The reasons for this are unknown, but his media contacts, the strength of the DuPont organization and World War II are likely to have played a role.
Also, technology was not yet well developed and limited options.
Plastics have become more common, but plastics from renewable resources got sidetracked.
There is of course the rest of the Henry Ford story.
He didn't stop with a few car parts, Ford predicted that he would some day "grow automobiles from the soil."
Which he did after 12 years of research.
 Popular Mechanics Magazine, Vol. 76, No. 6, December, 1941. Title: Auto Body Made of Plastics Resists Denting Under Hard Blows. (Text below)
 (same 1941 article above). Henry Ford in straw hat. Here is the auto Henry Ford "grew from the soil." Its plastic panels, with impact strength 10 times greater than steel, were made from flax, wheat, hemp, spruce pulp.
 Quarter scale model of Ford plastic car and its welded tubular steel frame.
Popular Mechanics, 1941, text:
"After twelve years of research, the Ford Motor Company has completed an experimental automobile with a plastic body.
Although its design takes advantage of the properties of plastics, the streamline car does not differ greatly in appearance from its steel counterpart.
The only steel in the hand-made body is found in the tubular welded frame on which are mounted 14 plastic panels, 3/16 inch thick.
Composed of a mixture of farm crops and synthetic chemicals, the plastic is reported to withstand a blow 10 times as great as steel without denting.
Even the Windows and windshield are of plastic.
The total weight of the plastic car is about 2,000 pounds, compared with 3,000 pounds for a steel automobile of the same size.
Although no hint has been given as to when plastic cars may go into production, the experimental model is pictured as a step toward materialization of Henry Ford's belief that some day he would "grow automobiles from the soil."
"When Henry Ford recently unveiled his plastic car, result of 12 years of research, he have the world a glimpse of the automobile of tomorrow, its tough panels molded under hydraulic pressure of 1,500 pounds per square inch from a recipe that calls for 70 percent of cellulose fibers from wheat straw, hemp, and sisal plus 30 percent resin binder.
The only steel in the car is its tubular welded frame.
The plastic car weighs a ton, 1,000 pounds lighter than a comparable steel car.
Manufacturers are already talking of a low-priced plastic car to test the public's taste by 1943."
|
Home 
