Luvocom-News

ISOCO and V Frames sign an exclusivity agreement with LEHVOSS Group

Cooperation in high-performance fiber reinforced compounds, including long carbon fiber and biopolymer carbon composite materials

After V Frames has successfully entered mass production of injection-molded carbon composite frames, forks, cockpits and other components for several OEMs, targeting volumes of 1 million components produced at the ISOCO plant in Schmiedefeld, Thuringia by 2027, the major focus of development is to increase the performance of the raw materials. With this step future frames can become more light-weight, more impact-resistant and E-modules can be increased from currently 32,000 MPa to up to 50,000 MPa long-term, further increasing the stiffness.

V Frames claims to already produce the most sustainable bicycle frames in the world, reducing the carbon footprint by 64% compared to traditional aluminum frame production according to an LCA from the University of Linz, Austria. Furthermore, in this project, V Frames and LEHVOSS focus on compounds containing recycled fibers from different industries for each new frame. The plan is to recycle the products at the end of their life cycle and use 100% for new bicycle component products. Supply chains are becoming largely independent of Asia, as all production is located in Germany and can basically be arranged just-in-time, with ISOCO's current production capacity of around 3 million frames per year. The dramatically reduced shipping of materials and parts results in a significant carbon footprint reduction. The development cooperation with LEHVOSS will further improve the environmental footprint by introducing biopolymers reinforced with carbon fibers into bike frame and component production for the first time.

Managing Director Michael Müller explains:

“LEHVOSS is an excellent partner for the development, production and testing of high-performance materials. With these steps we could push the limits of our technology to new levels. As an example the Buddy Electric / ISOCO X1 frame passed the falling mass test with 23kg at a drop height of 1120mm, a level far beyond the maximum test requirements of any institute and unreachable by most aluminium and traditional carbon frames. The material used for these high-performance frames is now available also for third parties. Additional materials are now developed and in testing, such as world’s first bio-based long carbon fiber material for water injection technology (WIT) assisted injection molding.

Together we now also push the limits of environmental sustainability with introducing bio-based Polyamides reinforced with carbon fibers. We are excited to show the drastic results of the new materials in the performance of our frames and components in the next months and years. The approach of V Frames is to provide the perfect material for any frame geometry, any component developed by V Frames, tailor made.”

”As a global leading material developer the LEHVOSS Group has always been at the forefront in developing high-performance carbon fiber reinforced materials for many different industries. Therefore we supported already for several years the development of V Frames technology and products, continuously testing new materials”, says 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 rapid speed of product improvement we see at V Frames makes them the perfect partner for us to raise the benchmarks in the years to come. The new materials introduced in the market under this cooperation represent complete new generation of materials, consisting of world’s first

  • Bio-based long carbon fiber materials for WIT injection molding
  • Bio-based polyamides reinforced with short carbon fibers
  • Economical, ecological and performance  optimized materials based on PA, carbon fiber and glass fiber compounds

This is why LEHVOSS is very glad to announce, after several years of intensive cooperation, to sign an exclusivity agreement for our new materials with V Frames and ISOCO. This includes the tailor-made development of optimized materials in combination with WIT, tailored to the areas of application and their exclusive production for V Frames”, continuous Eric Folz, Senior Business Development Manager at LEHVOSS.

All materials developed and tested in the cooperation are available for purchase. For details please contact V Frames and LEHVOSS. Material data sheets are available on request.

 

V Frames injection molding tool for bike components