The racing team Oreca will be joining this year’s 24 hours Le Mans race with anticipation. The French racing team will be using their racing car – ORECA01 which is the very first car that uses rear view mirrors equipped with thin film encapsulated flexible OLED on its back.
Flexible OLED lighting and signs are not yet available in the market and this is the first time that this technology will be demonstrated in public.
The success of being able to incorporate an OLED device in the car is due to the use of the encapsulation technology of Holst Centre and Araldite® composite materials of Huntsman Advanced Materials. Since OLEDs’ are sensitive to moisture, and even to oxygen, the encapsulation technology protected the OLED materials in order to maintain a long lifetime.
Huntsman Advanced Materials, a global manufacturer of vast types of products and Holst Centre, an open-innovation R&D centre, initiated the project. Holst is one of the leading R&D companies in the field of encapsulation technology and one of the few companies who are able to manufacture flexible OLEDs.
We are very proud to see our technology succesfully applied in this ambitious and prestigious project. To my knowledge, it is the first time that an OLED on flexible foil is shown outside the laboratory in an actual application. Because of the harsh conditions, applications in automotive are always very demanding for the technologies that are used. Racing teams like Oreca raise the bar even higher. The results of this integration project will be very valuable in our further research. We wish the entire team all the best during the race and hope that drivers, car and OLED will make a bright finish.” According to Ton van Mol, Program Manager Flexible OLED Lighting and Signage at Holst Centre.
André Genton, Huntsman CEO said: “The integration of the OLEDs into the ORECA O1’s rear view mirrors represents a great success. The ORECA car has already proven its speed and reliability over the past three seasons and by working hand in hand with other members of the team we have the opportunity to test our materials far beyond the limits of normal conditions. If Araldite® can withstand the demands of a racing track, then we know we have a winning formula.”
Pierre Seze, Composite Department Manager at Oreca : “First of all, we are very happy and proud to be involved in the OLED project. The integration of the OLED system in our carbon fiber pre-preg represents several advantages for our race car. The first one is the weight. Indeed with the OLED system our race car mirror carbon fiber made, keep its performance in terms of weight. Furthermore the integration of the OLED system doesn’t imply any mechanical problem on the carbon fiber pre preg made car mirror. This technology fit perfectly with the very demanding constraints of endurance race such Le Mans 24 Hours. I would like to pay a tribute to the guys at Huntsman laboratory in Switzerland for their help and support during the process of OLED integration on our race car.”
source: Holst Centre
