Lamborghini’s strategy for the design and development of its products is based on using abundant amounts of lightweight carbon fiber materials, an essential prerequisite for giving its super sports cars their extremely dynamic performance together with reduced emissions.
Automobili Lamborghini's exploration of composites started in 1983 when the first composites department was set up at Sant’Agata Bolognese. This coincided with the arrival of expertise from Seattle, gained from the first carbon fiber and Kevlar components of the Boeing 767. The first prototype of a carbon fiber chassis was built in 1983 for the Lamborghini Countach Evoluzione, an absolute first for a road car.
However, in 2007 there was an important turning point in the history of composites at Lamborghini: the start of a close collaboration with the University Of Washington (UW), and the transfer of some fundamental aspects for the development of RTM out-of-autoclave technology, which would eventually be the basis for the monocoque of the future Aventador.
The following year, the first collaboration agreement was signed with Boeing to study the crash behavior of composite materials and the Aventador’s monocoque.
For the first time in the automotive industry, Lamborghini started to implement technologies, processes, simulation and characterization methods from the aeronautics and aerospace industries.
In 2007, a division was set up based in the Research and Development Center, now called the Composites Development Center, to focus on research into innovative materials and the development of new concepts and technologies for application to carbon fiber.
As a result of its collaboration with Boeing and Callaway, Lamborghini developed its Forged Composite® technology in February 2010, leading to the idea for the Sesto Elemento vehicle in the space of just a few days. The team of engineers at Sant’Agata had the job of transforming innovations in composites from the aeronautics and aerospace industries into something that could be applied to the automotive sector, and this ultimately led to a specific patent.
2011 marked the start of the repair strategy, the result of a new collaboration with Boeing. It led to the creation of a process for repairing composite structures in the Automotive sector and was certified by TÜV. No one in the automotive industry had ever achieved this before.
An unusual element in Lamborghini’s customer care, as far as its carbon fiber components are concerned, are its “flying doctors”. They are a team of highly qualified specialist technicians who assure the best care possible of a damaged Aventador. These “flying doctors” are there to support the Lamborghini service centers on the ground by assessing the damage and then undertaking the repair work on the carbon fiber structure themselves. Lamborghini’s promise is to guarantee that the technical performance of the repaired part will be 100% identical to the original part. The repair center was set up at Sant’Agata Bolognese for training and applications not only in relation to customer vehicles but also for developments on prototypes and special series.
In 2010, a dedicated plant was built at Sant’Agata where alternating phases of automated production and careful craftsmanship come together to produce the innovative monocoque and the complete chassis of the Aventador, guaranteeing product expectations from the point of view of quality and quantity.
Most of the parts making up the monocoque are produced using Lamborghini’s patented RTM-Lambo technology. This process eliminates the need for manual lamination and autoclaves, but at the same time enables the use of carbon fiber molds, reducing production times and making RTM-Lambo a decidedly cutting-edge manufacturing technology.
Today, Lamborghini is internationally known as the leader in carbon fiber in the automotive industry. The ongoing development of transformation technologies and research into the integration and modularity of composites is evident in all Lamborghini products. Carbon fiber is a fundamental material in Lamborghini cars, from main structural components, such as the monocoque of the Aventador, in functional components such as the ALA system (active aerodynamics system), the aesthetic parts for the vehicle’s interior and exterior, to the aesthetic applications in the vehicle’s interior replacing leather and Alcantara® with a flexible carbon fiber called Carbonskin®. Carbonskin® is another exclusive patent owned by Lamborghini and the only flexible product approved for use in the automotive industry. Lamborghini technologies are always those best suited for the application in question, offering the ideal balance of structural performance, aesthetics, production rate and costs.
As part of its environmental sustainability commitment, the research and projects undertaken by the engineers at Lamborghini, have led to the implementation of specific production technologies that reduce the consumption of energy and precious resources like water, and drastically reducing the amount of composite production waste. All waste is either reused for other applications, on the vehicle or put to some other use at the factory, such as paneling or trolleys. Anything that cannot be reused is collected and recycled to recover the fiber, which is then used to make new products in recycled carbon fiber. These may even be other vehicle parts with less demanding structural and aesthetic specifications, such as vehicle floor panels. The ultimate goal is to create genuine full-circle sustainability for carbon fiber supply chain.