Plastic technology company Isoco and its subsidiary V Frames have entered into an an exclusivity agreement with Lehvoss Group. Under this agreement, Lehvoss, a materials development company, will collaborate with Isoco on the creation and supply of new high-performance fibre reinforced compounds, including long carbon fibre and biopolymer carbon composite materials, for the production of V Frames’ bicycled frames.
V Frames uses proprietary and patented technology to mass-produce high-performance carbon-composite frames in a process that combines injection-moulding with water-injection technology. Currently, the process uses material containing 100% recycled carbon fibres from the automotive industry, combined with PA, to create hollow-tube geometries providing outstanding mechanical properties. The resulting bicycle frames offer stiffnesses exceeding conventional aluminium frames, while cutting the frame weight at the same time. According an LCA conducted by the University of Linz in Austria, the frames are already among the most sustainable in the world, with a carbon footprint that is 64% smaller compared to traditional aluminium frame production. The process is fully automatic: it takes just 90 seconds to produce a finished bike frame with premium surfaces quality, the company explained.
V Frames now mass produces injection-moulded carbon composite frames, forks, cockpits and other components for several OEMs and is targeting a production volume of 1 million components at the ISOCO plant in Schmiedefeld, Thuringia by 2027.
The focus today is on increasing the performance of the raw materials to enable the production of even more light-weight, more impact-resistant and stiffer frames.
To that end, V Frames and Lehvoss are exploring the use of compounds containing recycled fibres from different industries. The frames will also all be fully recycled at the end of the bicycles’s lifetime into new bike component products, providing 100% circularity.
All production is located in Germany on a just-in-time basis; the supply chains from Asia have been cut, dramatically reducing the need for the shipping of parts and materials, and reducing the carbon footprint even further. Isoco currently produces around 3 million frames per year. The development cooperation with Lehvoss will further improve the environmental footprint by introducing the world’s first bio-based long carbon fiber material for water injection technology assisted injection moulding into bike frame and component production for the first time, said managing director Michael Müller. Other innovative developments include bio-based polyamides reinforced with short carbon fibres and ‘economical, ecological and performance optimised materials based on PA, carbon fibre and glass fibre compounds’, he said.
Lehvoss has long been at the forefront in developing high-performance carbon fibre reinforced materials for many different industries. The cooperation between Isoco and Lehvoss stretches back many years.
“We supported already for several years the development of V Frames technology and products, continuously testing new materials”, said Rene Warnick, head of R&D at Lehvoss. “With bike frames and other bike components, V Frames provides some of the most challenging products concerning product safety and performance in this technology segment.
The new materials introduced in the market under this cooperation represent a complete new generation of materials.”