The partnership between the Italian supercar manufacture and the US golf equipment company, and the Forged Composite material, were officially launched at the 2010 Paris Motor Show this month.
At the Paris show, Lamborghini also unveiled its first design featuring Forged Composite – the Sesto Elemento carbon fibre concept car.
"The introduction of the Forged Composite technology allowed Lamborghini to realise the monocoque and the suspension arms of the Sesto Elemento with groundbreaking quality and costs levels," says Maurizio Reggiani, Director Research and Development of Automobili Lamborghini. "Our next challenge is to make this technology a standard for low volume productions."
Callaway will introduce a line of premium golf equipment featuring the Forged Composite material in the coming weeks and during 2011, including the new Diablo Octane Driver. For golfers, using a carbon composite clubhead in place of steel and titanium means a greater transfer of power upon impact with the ball and longer, more accurate drives.
Forged Composite
Forged Composite is reported to be a carbon fibre/epoxy moulding compound encompassing more than 500 000 intertwined turbostratic fibres per square inch. Forged Composite is one-third the density of titanium, yet features a greater load carrying capacity per unit mass in bending. A proprietary isothermal forging process enables Callaway and Lamborghini to incorporate Forged Composite into their designs.
"Forged Composite provides us with the ability to engineer performance enhancements like never before, and we've only just begun to tap the potential of this material," reports Dr Alan Hocknell, Sr. Vice President, Research and Development, Callaway Golf. "We're looking forward to collaborating on future applications that push our designs beyond any preconceptions."
| 20 years ago most woods were just that – wood. Then Callaway introduced the Big Bertha stainless steel driver, which signalled the end of wood’s run as the standard for driver technology. The search for lighter, more exotic metals continued, and soon titanium became the new performance material. Today, all-titanium drivers represent more than 90% of the drivers on the market. Continuing to develop its products, Callaway has now replaced part of the titanium in the driver head with lightweight carbon fibre, allowing club engineers to fine-tune the placement of the heavier metal. Forged Composite is the next stage of development. |
