Modern carbon fiber furniture.
The automotive world today is shifting its focus towards improving performance and efficiency through the use of innovative, lightweight materials such as carbon fiber. The woven fiber was once hard to come by due to manufacturing challenges, but advancements in the industry have led to it becoming more commonplace. Designers, Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram, teamed up with Audi engineers to develop the new Audi R18 Ultra Chair in order to showcase the German automaker’s innovative technology and advancements in the field of carbon fiber.
The two designers created the chair using carbon fiber, carbon, and high-strength sheet aluminum and has been thoroughly tested by Audi engineers and the Audi Lightweight Construction Center. A prototype of the Audi R18 Ultra Chair was first shown in Spain at the Milan Furniture Fair in April, 2012 and was outfitted with the same electronic sensors to collect data that are used by the automaker to develop race cars. The chair underwent testing by 1,500 different people while Audi gathered information and presented it to the two designers who were able to create a chair with the ability to sustain the different stresses that it will subjected to under normal use.
“The technology was used for an item of furniture for the first time and allowed us to depict the forces at play in the chair”, said designer Clemens Weisshaar. This data allowed both designers to push the materials to their structural limits and keep weight as low as possible. The result was an incredible weight of only 2.2 kg (4.85 lbs.).
The Audi R18 Ultra Chair will be on display at Design Miami from December 5th through 9th alongside sketches, material samples, prototypes, and a robot used in automotive manufacturing. An Audi R18 LMP1 race car that competed during the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans will also be on display.
Audi R18 Ultra Chair Gallery
[Source: Audi]
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