Asahi Kasei has received the 2018 Altair Enlighten Award in the Enabling Technology category for its glass fibre reinforced polyamide 66 pedal bracket developed jointly with Mazda Motor Corporation.

The Altair Enlighten Award is presented by Altair Engineering, in collaboration with the Centre for Automotive Research (CAR), media partners SAE International and media sponsor Automobil Industrie.

The award, which has four categories, Full Vehicle, Module, The Future of Lightweighting and Enabling Technology, is given to automotive manufacturers and suppliers to honour innovative achievements in vehicle lightweighting.

Asahi Kasei’s Leona polyamide 66 was used to develop a substitute for metal brackets installed in an existing model of a Mazda vehicle.

The company’s topology optimisation technology, a computer type aided engineering (CAE), was used to achieve innovative design of the part, enabling an 83 per cent weight reduction.

Leveraging its unique plastic CAE technology and know-how to predict processability and service life of the applied polymer, Asahi Kasei says it makes proposals on the optimum part shape and mould design.

Asahi Kasei promotes the use of plastic as a substitute for metal parts to reduce vehicle weight for improved fuel economy.