SGL Carbon
SGL Carbon 
Dr. Jürgen Köhler, CEO, and Herwig Fischer, Managing Director of SGL Carbon at the production site Innkreis
By delivering its millionth composite leaf spring to Volvo Car Corp., Göteborg/Sweden, carbon fiber producer SGL Carbon SE, Wiesbaden/Germany has reached a milestone in the history of serial production of fiber composite components. As part of a company celebration, Dr. Jürgen Köhler, CEO of SGL, congratulated the entire team for one of the most successful large serial projects.
The leaf spring is manufactured at the site in Innkreis/Austria. With this fully automated, scalable serial production of leaf springs based on glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP), SGL offers one of the largest range of composite components in the automotive industry. Compared with standard steel leaf springs, which can weigh up to 15 kg, a similar GFRP spring leaf weighs just 6 kg, making it around 65% lighter. Besides a reduction in weight, the composite leaf spring also requires less space and ensures easy handling. Furthermore, the composite design means the leaf spring can be tailored to different models and the significant weight saving contributes to lower fuel consumption and reduced CO2 emissions.
The leaf spring is part of Volvo’s global SPA vehicle platform and is used in different vehicle models. SGL is also implementing similar concepts together with other car manufacturers from Europe and North America.