GKN plans
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GKN IS PLANNING to begin volume production of composite leaf springs in a little over one year from now, at a new factory to be built on the GKN Sankey site at Telford, Shropshire.
The operation will be known as GKN Composites (UK) and will be capable of producing up to 500,000 springs a year. GKN is investing E6.4m in the new plant following a E4m investment in development of the product.
The research and development programme began in 1977 and has been concerned with the use of composite materials for various automotive components including propshafts.
But GKN has decided to concentrate on the leaf spring, and a lot of its effort has gone into developing a production technique which will keep the composite springs price at an acceptable level, though the energy cost of producing a composite spring is reckoned to be only one-third or one-fifth of the cost of producing a conventional spring from steel stock.
A pilot plant at GKN's Group Technological Centre in Wolverhampton has been using the proposed mass production technique to make prototypes over the last three years.
Ford's Concept Cargo (CM June 18) is fitted with GKN's composite springs but Ford has denied that it will be the initial major customer for the Telford plant's output. Leyland and Bedford also deny that they have any firm plans to use composite springs though both confirm their general interest in the material.
The main advantage offered by the composite spring is its light weight. Compared with the conventional Cargo steel leaf springs the Concept Cargo components are about 60 per cent or 87kg (192 lb) lighter. GKN claims a general weight-saving of 50 per cent compared with an equivalent tapered leaf spring.