Sustainability

Our Values

Our values — what counts for us

As a family business we think, act and plan for the long term. Every individual within the company has the responsibility to ensure that their daily activities reflect this aim. That makes us predictable.
Our team works in an environment of mutual trust. This philosophy is extended to both our customers and suppliers. We stand by our word. That makes us reliable.
Our company welcomes change and pursues a path of continuous improvement, ensuring we remain successful. We remain true to our core values of mutual respect combined with legal compliance and a sound and socially orientated entrepreneurial spirit. That makes us credible.

Our guidelines — who we are and what we want

1. Our company

As a chemicals company, we aim to grow whilst ensuring we do not take excessive risks or neglect our social, legal and ecological responsibilities. That makes our activities sustainable.

2. Our strategy

We focus on three business strands: distribution, trading and our own production. We offer high-quality products and services whilst always looking for improvements. We search for the new by continuing to develop the tried and tested while also prudently venturing into unfamiliar terrain. We are systematically expanding our international reach. That makes us competitive.

3. Our clients

We work hand in hand with our clients and suppliers. Together with them we seek improvements and deliver bespoke solutions creating an environment of trust and mutual respect. That makes us successful.

4. Our employees

Our dedicated employees participate in the company`s economic success. We provide a secure workplace and excellent working conditions for all. We encourage ownership, responsibility and direct discussions, treating any problems as opportunities to improve. That makes us socially responsible and appealing.

5. Our managers

Our managers take responsibility for their business areas developing their own initiatives and ideas, which allows for sound decision-making. An environment of full equality exists within the business with our managers mentoring and coaching their respective teams. That makes managing in our company an ambitious and varied task.

To achieve the objectives behind our guidelines, we must all contribute in our respective fields. At the end of a working week, we should be able to feel proud of what we have achieved.

That makes Lehmann&Voss&Co. a special company.

Commitments

Ratings

Sustainabiliy of our Products

After V Frames has successfully entered mass production of injection-molded carbon composite frames, forks, cockpits and other components for several OEMs, targeting volumes of 1 million components produced at the ISOCO plant in Schmiedefeld, Thuringia by 2027, the major focus of development is to increase the performance of the raw materials. With this step future frames can become more light-weight, more impact-resistant and E-modules can be increased from currently 32,000 MPa to up to 50,000 MPa long-term, further increasing the stiffness.

V Frames claims to already produce the most sustainable bicycle frames in the world, reducing the carbon footprint by 64% compared to traditional aluminum frame production according to an LCA from the University of Linz, Austria. Furthermore, in this project, V Frames and LEHVOSS focus on compounds containing recycled fibers from different industries for each new frame. The plan is to recycle the products at the end of their life cycle and use 100% for new bicycle component products. Supply chains are becoming largely independent of Asia, as all production is located in Germany and can basically be arranged just-in-time, with ISOCO's current production capacity of around 3 million frames per year. The dramatically reduced shipping of materials and parts results in a significant carbon footprint reduction. The development cooperation with LEHVOSS will further improve the environmental footprint by introducing biopolymers reinforced with carbon fibers into bike frame and component production for the first time.

Managing Director Michael Müller explains:

“LEHVOSS is an excellent partner for the development, production and testing of high-performance materials. With these steps we could push the limits of our technology to new levels. As an example the Buddy Electric / ISOCO X1 frame passed the falling mass test with 23kg at a drop height of 1120mm, a level far beyond the maximum test requirements of any institute and unreachable by most aluminium and traditional carbon frames. The material used for these high-performance frames is now available also for third parties. Additional materials are now developed and in testing, such as world’s first bio-based long carbon fiber material for water injection technology (WIT) assisted injection molding.

Together we now also push the limits of environmental sustainability with introducing bio-based Polyamides reinforced with carbon fibers. We are excited to show the drastic results of the new materials in the performance of our frames and components in the next months and years. The approach of V Frames is to provide the perfect material for any frame geometry, any component developed by V Frames, tailor made.”

”As a global leading material developer the LEHVOSS Group has always been at the forefront in developing high-performance carbon fiber reinforced materials for many different industries. Therefore we supported already for several years the development of V Frames technology and products, continuously testing new materials”, says Rene Warnick, Head of R&D at LEHVOSS. “With bike frames and other bike components V Frames provides some of the most challenging products concerning product safety and performance in this technology segment. The rapid speed of product improvement we see at V Frames makes them the perfect partner for us to raise the benchmarks in the years to come. The new materials introduced in the market under this cooperation represent complete new generation of materials, consisting of world’s first

Bio-based long carbon fiber materials for WIT injection molding
Bio-based polyamides reinforced with short carbon fibers
Economical, ecological and performance optimized materials based on PA, carbon fiber and glass fiber compounds

This is why LEHVOSS is very glad to announce, after several years of intensive cooperation, to sign an exclusivity agreement for our new materials with V Frames and ISOCO. This includes the tailor-made development of optimized materials in combination with WIT, tailored to the areas of application and their exclusive production for V Frames”, continuous Eric Folz, Senior Business Development Manager at LEHVOSS.

All materials developed and tested in the cooperation are available for purchase. For details please contact V Frames and LEHVOSS. Material data sheets are available on request.

To make 3D printing more sustainable, LEHVOSS Group, Thought3D / Magigoo / Drywise, and Ultimaker the global leader in professional 3D printing have partnered up with Aquafil Group an Italian pioneer of the circular economy. The aim of this partnership is to bring to the market a circular PA6 material, that is manufactured from ECONYL® and renewable resources and that can itself be recycled at the end of its useful life into new raw material.

This new circular material is composed for more than 85% of ECONYL (regenerated polyamide 6), chemically recycled by Aquafil, and the remaining part of other polyamides from renewable sources with almost no additives. This compound ensures the possibility, to have 100% chemically recyclable filaments and products in the future. This however means that water uptake in the filament cannot be tuned as it is usually done on the LUVOCOM 3F product range. The affinity to water of this polyamide is so great that the material is no longer printable after just a couple of hours, even when dried and stored in a low-humidity chamber (drybox). This poses a serious challenge for 3D printing, severely limiting its potential.

Drywise is the only filament dryer on the market that enables this material. With its active in-line filament drying architecture, Drywise removes the moisture from the section of filament that is being fed through the dryer to the printer as it is printing. This ensures consistently dried filament is used to print the parts and hence eliminates time-dependent moisture uptake issues. The first and last layers will have the same material quality, regardless of the state in which the filament started. Drywise requires minimal user input and only requires a very short setup time to initiate printing. As this material cannot receive additives for thermal stabilization, not submitting the filament to multiple drying cycles is essential to prevent material degradation as well, which makes the Drywise dryer a great fit as it only dries the material which will be used.