Development of the Liteflex _tm Suspension Leaf Spring

Emphasis on vehicle weight reduction in 1977 justified taking a new look at composite springs.

Many reinforcement and matrix resin materials were considered before the combination of fiberglass and epoxy in a filament winding process was selected.

Prior to introduction on the first production application, three and one-half years of testing were conducted accumulating 58 million laboratory fatigue cycles and over five million vehicle test kilometers.

The 3.6 Kg composite spring replaced an 18.6 Kg ten leaf steel spring.

In addition to mass savings, the Liteflex_tm composite spring offers the potential for improvement in durability, ride, isolation and packaging.