Jalopnik 
Enter your username and password.
Detroit, 1:19 PM
Mon Nov 16
18 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jalopnik.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Ray Wert | Email | AIM
Road Test Editor:
Wes Siler | Email
Weekend Editor:
Murilee Martin | Email
Associate Editor - Houston:
Matt Hardigree
Associate Editor - Detroit:
Ben Wojdyla
Editor-at-Large:
Mike Spinelli
Contributors:
Mark Arnold
John Krewson | Email
Andy Didorosi
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
11/02/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
Basically, Toyota has created a automated process that can wrap an aluminum sub-frame in carbon-fiber. Hitherto, sheets of CF where laid out layer-by-layer by hand and permeated with resin before its cured in an autoclave. Toyota has developed an obviously expensive bespoke machine that can weave dry fiber around a three-dimensional object.
The first obvious benefit is that its one contiguous sheet of carbon-fiber and not separate layers. There is an important QA/QC element to any carbon fiber product, this is especially important for load bearing components, and having CF layered one upon the other by hand makes it susceptible to defects like micro-cracking and other errors that can make itself apparent later in the products lifetime.
Secondly, the binding of carbon-fiber to aluminum (or any metal) has always been challenge. The conventional method is using simple threaded inserts that bind the CF to the aluminum. Toyota have found a unique method where it has a flanged collar where the dry fiber is weaved around the aluminum using this machine.
For larger volume production cars, this method is beneficial because it allows for carbon-fiber usage only on components where it is necessary and still allowing the usage of conventional metals like aluminum/steel. Atop that, this method is automated and not done by hand. For future Toyota products, some key-components can use this CF process sparingly to strengthen specific metal components without the raising costs dramatically. #lexuslfa
10/30/09
10/30/09
Thanks to your post I now see the many benefits and respect what a breakthrough it is. #lexuslfa
10/30/09
Very informative, thank you!
*props* #lexuslfa
10/31/09
10/31/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
I think the whole "trickle-down" argument for the LFA's existence is a ruse. Toyota uses it to justify to its shareholders, potential customers, and a gullible automotive press the pouring of thousands of man-hours and hundreds of millions of dollars in research and development into things like this loom - which seems to serve no purpose other than constructing a couple of bits for a very limited-production car. This, in turn, is used to justify the $100K-$200K premium over its competition. That premium, in reality, has nothing to do with the superiority of the result, but everything to do with Toyota's attempt to recoup the losses from an excessive, meandering, decade-long exercise in over-engineering. #lexuslfa
11/03/09
11/06/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/31/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
Also, I watched the video and it appears the loom is being run by a second generation ipod. #lexuslfa
10/30/09
@tempesjo: I setup my loom to run off my old NES... I wasn't using it anymore, except to play RC Pro-Am. #lexuslfa
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
..
zzz...
Wha? Oh, sorry, I dozed off. I got to thinking of Toyota using this to build Camrys... "Dreamweaver" started playing in my head, and I must've fallen asleep. #lexuslfa
10/30/09
10/30/09
It is just my natural hair. I have been growing it since birth.
(hack)
That'll be 400 thousand dollars. #lexuslfa
10/30/09