Henkel has reached a supply agreement with Carbon Revolution, a privately-owned Australian manufacturer of one-piece automotive carbon composite wheels. The collaboration includes dedicated manufacturing facilities, which Henkel will invest in, to be established at the company’s existing plant near Melbourne.
“Based on a number of years of close collaboration with Carbon Revolution, we have extended our proven portfolio of composite material technologies to create proprietary solutions that meet the demanding performance specifications of the global car makers,” said Konrad Brimo Hayek, Senior Business Development Manager for automotive components at Henkel. “The collaboration with Carbon Revolution is targeted at providing various global OEM carbon wheel programmes with the best solutions available and includes active support from Henkel via dual production capacities in the EU and locally in Australia.”
Carbon Revolution says its carbon fibre composite wheels are now used on some of the world’s most prestigious sports cars. The reductions in unsprung rotational mass translate into vehicle handling benefits, from better steering feel and traction to improved accelerating and braking response.
“As light-weighting components, carbon wheels can make a significant contribution to minimising the energy consumed when spinning the wheels up and dragging them back down every time the car is accelerated or slowed,” said Brett Gass, Chief Technology Officer at Carbon Revolution. “This saves fuel on combustion engine vehicles and battery power on hybrid and fully electric vehicles, maximising their range. Henkel’s advanced material technology also adds to the overall reduction of our carbon wheels in noise, vibration and harshness when compared to steel or aluminium wheels, which means automakers can save weight on additional sound insulation.”