Audi teams up with Voith for carbon fiber production
Audi announced on Wednesday that it has teamed up with Voith GmbH to “promote industrialization of fiber-reinforced materials, particularly through developing a highly automated process chain for high-volume automotive production.”
Both companies have signed a letter of intent to form a long-term and exclusive partnership that will focus on the further development of carbon fiber materials for use in future vehicles. Audi says the goal is to use the high potential of carbon fiber to benefit lightweight construction and efficiency.
“Fiber-reinforced polymers offer weight and strength advantages, which we have already put to use in the Audi R8 and the Audi RS 3, for instance. We want to use these advantages for high-volume production as well, and therefore the focus of our partnership with Voith is on specific car projects,” said Rupert Stadler, CEO of Audi.
“We are concentrating on the manufacturing and recyclability of fiber-reinforced materials in the interest of a sustainable material cycle. After all, part of our corporate responsibility is to face the challenge of harmonizing economic and environmental interests as we move toward using fiber-reinforced polymers in high-volume production. With Audi and Voith, the right partners have come together to handle these challenges.”
Voith has been involved with the use of CFRP (carbon fiber-reinforced polymer) in industrial plant design, such as in lightweight construction components in paper machines or in drive engineering.
– By: Omar Rana
