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business
magazine for
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enterprises
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kringlan composites AG
Libernstrasse 24
CH-8112 Otelngen
Switzerland
Website: www.kringlan.ch
A material engineer, Dr. Pini conceived the
idea for kringlan some ten years ago when
he was driving an underpowered Fiat
Punto and came to the conclusion that to
make the car faster, it would be easier to
reduce the weight than to increase the
power. The most promising solution was
converting the wheels from metal to
carbon, he believed. There were a number
of technical puzzles to be solved to
achieve this, however. Carbon doesnt
behave like metal, Dr. Pini explains, so he
had to rethink the whole geometry of
wheels and the whole manufacturing
process. Interesting in that regard is that
even though high-performance racing
bicycles with carbon wheels are fairly
common, they are manufactured
manually and there is a low level of
automation. The industry doesnt like
that because manual production leads to
errors and just isnt economically
feasible. Addressing this issue, kringlan
has developed technologies that enable
the automated manufacturing of carbon
parts such as wheels and other complex
parts, employing robots to enable robust
and reproducible production and
economic feasibility.
kringlan has now partnered with
TenCate, a global leader in the
development of technical fabrics and
other materials, to co-develop carbon
wheels for the automotive industry.
TenCate has the material knowhow,
kringlan the manufacturing technology
knowhow, so its a good t, says Dr.
Pini. TenCate specialises in aircraf
structures, for them its their rst move
into the automotive industry. They
specically re-engineered carbon
material for this purpose. The
kringlan composites AG recently started a cooperation with TenCate
Advanced Composites in order to develop solutions for part
manufacturing, notably reinforced carbon wheels for the automotive
industry, on the basis of thermoplastic composite technology.
Dr. Niccolo Pini, kringlan founder and COO, explains how the
technology works and which industries could benet.
High-tech manufacturing
automotive industry is interested in
bringing the weight of wheels down as
this can help them meet their CO2
reduction commitment, he adds. The
goal of the partnership with TenCate is
to work with automotive OEMs. We are
interested only in high volume
production.
Kringlan kringlan also works with other
partners, both upstream and downstream,
Dr. Pini emphasises. Our focus isnt
uniquely on the automotive industry. I
actually think that in the short term there
is more growth potential for us in the
sporting goods and apparel market. I am
passionate about bicycles myself and
believe that if we can bring automated
manufacturing to the carbon bicycle
industry, we can bring down the cost and
improve the quality signicantly.
Over the next 12 months, Dr. Pini hopes to
get a manufacturing plant and series
production in place.

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