Lamborghini Experimenting With Chopped Carbon Fiber Suspension Parts for Future Cars
Lamborghini revealed to reporters during a recent tech presentation that the company is experimenting with a type of carbon fiber called "chopped carbon fiber" that could simplify production and reduce costs.
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Chopped carbon fiber is a different type of carbon fiber that isn't woven like the carbon fiber you're thinking of. Rather, lengths of carbon fibers are chopped into pieces a few inches long or shorter then mixed with resin to create a pre-impregnated material similar to the common pre-preg carbon fiber found in cars, planes and other common places. Lamborghini says chopped fiber uses longer strands of fiber than woven carbon fiber and is nearly as strong and more resistant to cracking when damaged. Like most composites, it's also lighter than most metals and the finished product is considered a Class-A surface, meaning it can be painted like any metal part.
Chopped fiber is also easier to work with than woven pre-preg carbon fiber. Where the woven carbon fiber Lamborghini uses to build its cars now must me laid into a mold and cured at high temperature and pressure for hours in an Autoclave to activate and cure the resin, chopped fiber can be stamped out with a press in a matter of minutes. The result Lamborghini calls "forged carbon fiber."
To demonstrate, Lamborghini created small chopped fiber replicas of the badges on their cars. Strips of pre-preg chopped fiber are cut from a larger sheet and rolled into a cylindrical slug. The slug is then placed in a heated mold and is then pressed for two minutes by an industrial press. The rough piece that comes out is too hot to touch, but quickly cools and can easily be machine finished. Larger parts take six to nine minutes.
The process is good for more than just stamping out trinkets, though. Also on display were suspension A-arms stamped from chopped fiber. These particular parts were developed for the Sesto Elemento concept car that debuted at the Paris Motor Show last year, but they're not just for show. Lamborghini is actively developing the stamping process and working with its carbon fiber partners to create lightweight chopped fiber parts that are strong enough to replace the steel or aluminum A-arms in use today. Lamborghini, of course, wasn't too keen on us taking pictures of their prototypes, so we'll have to settle for these supplied shots of the chopped fiber badges being pressed.
Should the chopped fiber parts prove strong enough, the company may move them into production to further reduce the weight of their vehicles. If chopped carbon fiber proves viable, it could soon turn up in other traditionally metal-made car parts as well.
Were you one of those kids who taught themselves to identify cars at night by their headlights and taillights? I was. I was also one of those kids with a huge box of Hot Wheels and impressive collection of home-made Lego hot rods. I asked my parents for a Power Wheels Porsche 911 for Christmas for years, though the best I got was a pedal-powered tractor. I drove the wheels off it. I used to tell my friends I’d own a “slug bug” one day. When I was 15, my dad told me he would get me a car on the condition that I had to maintain it. He came back with a rough-around-the-edges 1967 Volkswagen Beetle he’d picked up for something like $600. I drove the wheels off that thing, too, even though it was only slightly faster than the tractor. When I got tired of chasing electrical gremlins (none of which were related to my bitchin’ self-installed stereo, thank you very much), I thought I’d move on to something more sensible. I bought a 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT and got my first speeding ticket in that car during the test drive. Not my first-ever ticket, mind you. That came behind the wheel of a Geo Metro hatchback I delivered pizza in during high school. I never planned to have this job. I was actually an aerospace engineering major in college, but calculus and I had a bad breakup. Considering how much better my English grades were than my calculus grades, I decided to stick to my strengths and write instead. When I made the switch, people kept asking me what I wanted to do with my life. I told them I’d like to write for a car magazine someday, not expecting it to actually happen. I figured I’d be in newspapers, maybe a magazine if I was lucky. Then this happened, which was slightly awkward because I grew up reading Car & Driver, but convenient since I don’t live in Michigan. Now I just try to make it through the day without adding any more names to the list of people who want to kill me and take my job.
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