HOW DOES MUBEA ACTUALLY MAKE LIGHTWEIGHT DESIGNS?

Innovative material, new design – the GFRP tension leaf spring

Inventiveness, long-standing chassis expertise, and fiber-reinforced composite know-how all developed in house – this is what sets our employees apart. Within a very short time, we have written a new Mubea success story: a spring made of glass fiber reinforced plastic.

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A strong team for a great success : FOCUS ON INNOVATIONS

With our products, we focus on innovation, because only this will make us better. Therefore, we are always open to the ideas of our employees.

-50 kg

In light commercial vehicles up to 4.0 tons, our innovative GFRP spring can save as much as 50 kg on the rear axle compared with conventional steel leaf springs. This enables us to achieve a higher cargo load or a lower fuel consumption for the same vehicle weight.

In cooperation with universities, we developed the vision to produce a spring from glass fiber reinforced plastic. Before long, our employees had designed a revolutionary spring to suit the application, successfully marketed it, and produced it in series. Even setbacks along the way did not discourage us. Our determination was rewarded in 2014, with the first series production order for GFRP leaf springs on the rear axle of the Mercedes Sprinter.

On the team: Stefano Rosta helped write the success story and repeatedly contributed his creative solutions. In 2011, after completing his mechanical engineering studies, he started his career at Mubea as a development engineer with the focus on structural mechanics and simulation. From the very beginning it was important for him to combine detailed technical work with the bigger picture. In 2015, Stefano Rosta was assigned the task of building up the know-how on chassis composites in the North American R&D department and developing it in line with customer requirements. To crown his three-year stay at the North American Mubea location in Auburn Hills he won the first series order. Since 2019, he has headed the worldwide research and development of chassis composites in Attendorn, Germany. Since 2022, he manages the business unit composite springs and is Managing Director of Mubea Fahrwerksfedern GmbH.

“At Mubea, we are driven by exciting work content and are always looking for special challenges.”

The future of fiber reinforced composites in automobiles looks promising. This is because emissions can be further reduced, especially with intelligent lightweight design. For such innovations, we give our best every day and work in an ambitious, focused, and open minded way to achieve our goals.

THE KEY TO OUR SUCCESS

Why is it so important for us at Mubea to be ambitious, focused, and open minded?

Our daily actions are determined by our corporate values and customer benefits. Our goals are therefore ambitious, just like our employees, together we want to achieve great things. The prerequisite for our success is to pursue our goals in a focused manner and to know exactly what we want to achieve. Ideas and innovative solutions will only come into being, if we are open to new ones. This is why value-oriented action is so important to us.

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“We believe that if you don’t move forward, you will end up going backward!”

With our ideas and products, we want to significantly improve our customers’ chassis. To do this, we have to look beyond the component to the system functions. This holistic competence requires constant learning and further development.

THE MATERIAL FOR FEATHERLIGHT SPRINGS

Glass fiber reinforced plastic

With large deformations and high load population, glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) is ideally suited for chassis applications because of its high elasticity and lightweight design potential. Compared with steel, GFRP has an enormous specific energy absorption capacity. The GFRP spring is not only lighter but also corrosion resistant and cannot fail instantly. Another advantage is the progressive spring characteristic which improves driving comfort on bad roads, independently of the cargo load.

When developing our springs made from glass fiber reinforced plastic, we draw on Mubea Carbo Tech’s many years of know-how in fiber-reinforced composites. This project is therefore an impressive example of the high synergy potential within Mubea – existing knowledge is consistently used, transferred to other areas, and constantly developed.

Composite components

Carbon fiber composites reduce weight and are resistant to corrosion.

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Work at Mubea

Play a part in the Mubea success story and help to shape the future.

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Mubea Carbo Tech

Mubea Carbo Tech is a pioneering specialist in composite structures.