VIDEO: Weaving the Lexus LFA's carbon fiber A-pillar is mesmerizing
If you read our First Drive of the Lexus LFA, you might recall an interesting little factoid we threw in to illustrate the OCD-level of detail Toyota used to produce its first ever supercar.
With over 150 years of looming experience, ToMoCo owns a rotary weaver -- one of two in existence -- which it repurposed to create the carbon fiber A-pillars on the LFA. The process is mindbogglingly awe-inspiring and we were finally able to snag video of the device in action. Make the jump to check it out and get a better idea of why the LFA carries its steep $375,000 price tag.
UPDATE: Toyota asked us to take down the video. Something about proprietary technology. Lame.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
foxthewhite 8:05PM (10/29/2009)
McLaren can produce a carbon fiber 'tub' at a much lower cost. The fact that a company chose to produce a similar product at a higher cost does not justify its higher price.
Anyway ToMoCo does not need to justify the $375000 price tag. All they need is to convince 500 people to pay.
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AutoCritical 8:10PM (10/29/2009)
I'm no CF expert, but isn't the F1 tub designed differently to the A-pillar of a car? As in, they are designed to encounter different situations?
I think in F1 they make them by hand, which is reasonable seeing as they have a handful of cars, as opposed to a 'production' line of LFA's
RyanK 8:15PM (10/29/2009)
Of course they can produce the tub for less money. They aren't weaving individual strands together to form a circular or oddly shaped part. Anyone with the materials and a bit of know how can lay sheets of carbon and resin. It would take far more skill, time (and thus money) to do what this machine is doing by hand or to build another machine from scratch to replicate it.
foxthewhite 8:17PM (10/29/2009)
@AutoCritical
I was talking about the McLaren MP4-12C, not the McLaren Formula 1 cars
Josh 9:38PM (10/29/2009)
His comment is still valid - it takes a highly specialized machine to build an A-pillar out of carbon fiber compared to a tub. This is simply incredible to watch being produced and I should think that anyone who is really passionate about cars would appreciate the beauty of such a machine.
Tony 10:20PM (10/29/2009)
What you fail to understand is that of all the Auto blogs today this one has the most comments. An extremely complex and expensive machine design to accomplish an incredibly complex task with precision. Just enjoy it as many others have, even if you can't afford the product it produces.
Coco 11:13PM (10/29/2009)
foxthewhite -- "Anyway ToMoCo does not need to justify the $375000 price tag. All they need is to convince 500 people to pay."
Lexus' demographic has the highest income levels among all luxury brands, they'll sell everyone of them. LFA represents pinnacle of Japanese automotive engineering as this video indicates, and produced completely in-house with custom parts and components, even Bugatti, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche and others all contract out things like gearboxes and the design and construction of carbon fiber components.
Britsarenotfunny 11:41PM (10/29/2009)
Why do smart comments get thumbs down on autoblog? this place must be full of retards....
I absolutely agree with you.
zamafir 12:22AM (10/30/2009)
@Josh - The car's a boat load of meh to me, but that video and technique are amazing. very cool.
ckm 1:34AM (10/30/2009)
I remember that K2 skis used a similar technology in their triaxial series, although they were fiberglass, not carbon fiber. It's not an unusual method to deal with complex fiber-based parts and it's been around for a while. Certainly an A-pillar is quite a novel use of it...
grewg81 1:42AM (10/30/2009)
They won't have trouble finding them
Temple 2:13AM (10/30/2009)
McLaren doesn't weave their own carbon, looking at that loom you understand why. Toyota built that just for the LF-A at this point, and its probably as complex, or more complex, then the LF-A itself.
Automakers like Mclaren merely buy pre-weaved sheets wholesale, they come in different patterns and types; 1k,1.5k,3k,6k,12k .24K,48K, etc. The main CF manufactures are companies like Toray, Mitsubishi-Rayon, SGL, Hexcel, etc.
What Toyota is doing is unprecedented in that this machines not only does custom weaves, it weaves around a sub-frame, and they've created a massively complicated equipment to do that.
Bryant 2:42AM (10/30/2009)
@Britsarenotfunny
Hello there, foxthewhite. Pretending to be someone else to give validity to your own comment clearly failed.
Toyota's purpose for the LF-A shifted from aiming at exotics manufacturers to being a proof of concept for an entirely new manufacturing process. If Toyota had stuck with the previous aluminum frame plan, the LF-A might've easily been half the price, if not less.
The entire purpose for the LF-A now is to serve as a research product to recoup costs. The LF-A is to Toyota as the Roadster is to Tesla; both of them served as proof-of-concepts designed for the sake of drumming up hype and testing feasibility.
Mirko 5:23AM (10/30/2009)
@Coco
"produced completely in-house"
You mean the Yamaha engine?
sparrk 5:25AM (10/30/2009)
@ Coco , "LFA represents pinnacle of Japanese automotive engineering as this video indicates, and produced completely in-house"
the LF-A engine was co-developed by Toyota with Yamaha, at least the other brands you mentioned make their own engines.
Porsche, Lambo and Bugatti make their own gearboxes too.Lambo uses their own E-Gear gearboxes, Audi was the first car manufacturer to use DSG on production cars, Porsche makes their own manuals and PDK means Porsche Doppelkuplung, their own gearbox . Bugatti Veyron has the first 7 speed dual clutch gearbox specially designed by VW for the car, they employed a guy who created F1 gearboxes to be the chief engineer for the project.
Mirko 6:04AM (10/30/2009)
The Bugatti gearbox is made by Ricardo. Audi/VW's DSG/S-Tronic is just theirlicensed version of the Borg-Warner DualTronic. The unit in the Nissan GT-R is also based on a Borg-Warner design. Porsche's PDK is made by ZF Friedrichshafen. BMW's dual clutch transmissions, as well as Chrysler's, Ferrari's, Ford's and Volvo's are made by Getrag.
nagmashot 8:02AM (10/30/2009)
@Mirko
Borg Warner have no patent on dual clutch gear boxes used by Audi /VW..that is a silly internet miss information... Borg Warner supplyes only a very small part for the VW Audi 6speed wet DSG tranny and Borg Warner builds the vew parts on exact order from VW Audi...all patents for the 6speed wet VW/Audi DSG are owned by VW Audi...
Other example for the 7 speed dry clutch DSG Borg Warner delivers nothing... not a single screw. The dry clutch discs for the 7speed DSG comes from LUK.
Evan 12:18PM (10/30/2009)
I'm more impressed by Lotus' use of extruded aluminum:
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/10/28/lotus-shopping-evora-chassis-to-other-automakers/
While Toyota is off in a dreamland of infinite money, Lotus found a practical and economically viable solution to rapid chassis development and low production runs.
Temple 2:06PM (10/30/2009)
@Evan
Use of extruded aluminum chassis is not unique, in fact most of the technology has been done by Hydro Aluminium of Denmark, which is Lotus' supplier.
Also, I think you're missing the point of this carbon-fiber loom. CF looms are exist, but they are largely 2D looms, this is a fully 3D loom that actually binds CF to aluminum. Right now you have sheets of CF and you have to layer them atop one another, impregnate them with epoxy and autoclave it. Its done by hand, and binding it to a metal is difficult because the areas that are joined serve as weak points.
Conventional methods like the one used in the Mclaren MP4-12C uses metal inserts on sheets to bond the two substances; then they are vacuum packed and autoclaved. Toyota has found a method to bind a aluminum to CF and then have this machine weave around it- its an entire generation ahead.
This is important because:
1.) Its largely automated, which means its more suitable for mass-production because it reduces the amount of hand-labor/error that is required in CF manufacturing (layering sheet upon sheet of CF).
2.) CF can be used strategically because this is an effective method to bind carbon fiber to aluminum by using a flange connected to a 3D loom, and aluminum can be used in larger quantity. Dramatically reduced cost and increase in torsional rigidity.
This is a whole generation beyond that Lotus is doing with aluminum, and the LF-A isn't just about carbon-fiber, its all about aluminum as well.
atlasfugged 8:05PM (10/29/2009)
Impressive.
To those who would drop $375K on an LFA, this is what the $100K-$200K premium you're paying for over comparable Ferraris and Lambos is buying.
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