Gordon Murray Design’s iStream technology wins Dewar trophy

The Dewar Trophy, one of the most prestigious honours in the UK automotive industry, has been awarded to Gordon Murray Design for its development of iStream technology – a new process for the high volume manufacture of lightweight vehicles.

The trophy was presented to the company’s founder, Prof Gordon Murray, for his team’s development and application of the innovative chassis concept, including its use in the Global Vehicle Trust OX all-terrain vehicle - a cheap and durable flat-pack truck designed for the developing world. Prof Murray will be talking about the process later this month at The Engineer's Collaborate To Innovate conference

An iStream-constructed chassis is at the heart of the OX, featuring steel tubes bonded together by plates. In more expensive vehicles, the plates would be carbon fibre but here they are ‘engineered plywood’, an incredibly strong and cheap material that helps contribute to the OX’s 1,900kg payload capacity.

The iStream process keeps costs as low as possible, too, requiring no steel pressing or expensive robot assembly; only simple jigs. Overall investment in factory and vehicle set-up is about five per cent of a conventional vehicle.