Through the development of a lightweight rear spoiler and a bio-based honeycomb trunk floor panel being finalised, the r-LightBioCom project has translated its research on sustainable composite materials into tangible demonstrators with clear industrial relevance. The project has successfully demonstrated two automotive components that showcase exactly how sustainable materials can be integrated into high-performance vehicle applications without compromising functionality or manufacturability; these demonstrators being a rear wing/spoiler for competition-grade race cars, and a honeycomb-based trunk floor. Both were fabricated with advanced composite materials by combining recycled carbon fibres, natural fibres, and bio-based polymers with optimised manufacturing processes.
Sustainable automotive demonstrators showcase lightweight and bio-based composite solutions
The automotive sector faces increasing pressure to reduce vehicle weight and environmental impact while maintaining performance and manufacturability. To combat these challenges, r-LightBioCom has developed the following two automotive components based on bio-based, recycled, and sustainable composite materials. Both of these demonstrators display the undeniable potential of sustainable composite materials to support lightweight vehicle design, circular material use, and more resource-efficient automotive manufacturing.
Rear wing / Spoiler component
The rear spoiler component was manufactured by combining recycled carbon fibres with natural flax fibres, with a hand lay-up process on an aluminium autoclave tool.
The resulting spoiler component achieved a weight reduction of approximately 600 g, or 18.25% compared to the current production version, while maintaining the same geometric tolerances and structural requirements. Due to the demonstrator being successfully developed as planned, the deep potential of hybrid natural and recycled fibre composites as lightweight alternatives for automotive exterior components is further intensified.
The r-LightBioCom project partner CRF lead the development of both demonstrators, and has carried out validation tests for this demonstrator to identify the material combination that would result in the lightest, and most sustainable component while still meeting all necessary standards.
Honeycomb-based trunk floor component
In parallel, r-LightBioCom has also developed a completely bio-based honeycomb trunk floor panel, which was manufactured from flax fibres (30%) and thermoplastic PLA fibres (70%) that are opened, blended and carded to form a homogenous nonwoven material. The means of production are scalable, which includes lamination, corrugation, thermal bonding, hot-wire trimming, and reinforcement lamination.
This manufacturing approach has also been optimised for industrial deployment, offering a cost-effective, high-throughput alternative to conventional prepreg and autoclave-based composite production. By manufacturing with these scalable processes, it delivers a lightweight and biodegradable panel with mechanical properties suitable for automotive applications.
As part of the development of the demonstrator, an extensive material characterisation campaign on a wide range of sandwich core materials was carried out. This was where the environmental footprint, and the static and dynamic mechanical properties of the cores were systematically assessed. As part of these experimental investigations, comprehensive studies were conducted on flax-fibre honeycomb cores to evaluate the influence of different manufacturing parameters on their mechanical performance and sustainability.
The systematic analysis of the varying process parameters enabled the optimisation of the final material characteristics, and contributed to the research and development of the high-performance and environmentally sustainable bio-based honeycomb core. The r-LightBioCom project partner CRF has also carried out validation tests for this demonstrator as well, in order to tackle many possible issues and real scenarios regarding high-pressure, temperature, and more. In turn, these tests helped solidify the component’s capabilities in real usage situations, and enhance its viability and market readiness.
Potential for relevant industrial applications and the market
These demonstrators developed in r-LightBioCom mainly target the strategically important automotive industry, each with their own relevant highlights to ensure market and industrial relevance, which address the importance of lightweighting, sustainability, and cost-efficient manufacturing in order to meet market and industrial demands, vast potential of various possible applications simply waiting to be applied in the future.
The lightweight rear spoiler demonstrates how recycled carbon fibres and natural flax fibres can be successfully integrated into structural automotive components, achieving a weight reduction of 18% compared to the conventional version while still meeting the necessary structural requirements. At the same time, the bio-based honeycomb trunk floor panel showcases a scalable alternative to conventional composite structures through the use of flax- and PLA-based materials.
The trunk floor manufacturing route has been optimised at pilot-plant scale and offers definitive industrial advantages, such as high production rates, short cycle times, low energy consumption, and even reduced manufacturing complexity compared to prepreg-based processes. These kinds of characteristics make the technology particularly attractive for high-volume automotive production, where cost efficiency, repeatability, scalability, and similar are critical. Together, the two demonstrators meet both industrial and market demands, and show strong, promising potential for their applications and sectors.
Beyond their immediate automotive applications, the materials and manufacturing approaches developed with these demonstrators provide valuable potential pathways for broader adoption of bio-based and recycled composites across transportation sectors, for even the aeronautical sector, where lightweight components are essential.
International collaboration for a more sustainable Europe
The lead project partner in the development of these demonstrators was CRF, but it required the effective collaboration and communication efforts across all of the project partners to reach the success that was achieved through the development of the technologies, such as DLR’s aforementioned material characterisation campaign, and also project coordinator AITEX’s production technologies. Such collaborations between partners clearly demonstrate the project’s practical solutions that support the vital European transition to more sustainable, circular, and resource-efficient industries. The research provided both the developed demonstrators and overall project itself directly contributes positively to EU sustainability policies such as the European Green Deal and Circular Economy action plan by reducing reliance on fossil-based materials and enabling lightweight vehicle designs.
