SGL Group said on December 11 that the company has been producing fiberglass composite rear axle longitudinal leaf springs for Ford Transit vehicles since mid-2019. This leaf spring will be installed on the Skeleton chassis of Transit cars (especially travel models and special commercial models with higher payload requirements). Compared with traditional leaf springs, this leaf spring has achieved a 50% weight reduction, safety performance has also been improved, and more importantly, it can directly replace the existing standard steel leaf springs one-to-one.
This is Ford's first mass-produced composite leaf spring project worldwide. After the production is completed, SGL will send the leaf spring to Ford Otosan (Ford's largest commercial vehicle production center in Europe) factory in Kocaeli, Turkey for assembly.
Sebastian Grasser, Head of Automotive Composites, SGL Group's Fiber Materials Division, said: "This composite leaf spring is specifically designed for Ford Transit's Skeleton chassis and is a milestone in the mass production of lightweight leaf spring products. It is not only unique The material properties and semi-automated production process are more importantly highly compatible with many existing models. "
In addition, this is the first time that automobile leaf springs have been produced using glass fiber prepregs provided by the Willich factory of the SGL Group. SGL Group's parts factory in Innkreis, Austria will be responsible for the development and mass production of the leaf spring. The leaf spring is an important part of the development strategy of SGL Group to achieve the popularization and application of its glass fiber composite material solutions in the automotive industry.