A spotlight on Lamilux, the brand shielding your motorhome from UV damage

How GRP is made

Have you even wondered how a motorhome is made? If you have ever been lucky enough to walk around a motorhome factory, you will appreciate just how complicated and intensive it is to create a coachbuilt motorhome. Thousands of components go into the construction of a leisure vehicle, but one of the most overlooked ones is the one you see and that’s the GRP outer skin. We talk to German company, Lamilux, about its market and a new product...

At these factories, visitors can’t fail to notice massive rolls of shiny white flexible GRP material that is used to create the motorhomes’ (and caravans) outer walls and roofs.

It is likely these rolls, as well as many of the materials for the floors, were made by Lamilux, a German supplier that has just launched a new product to solve one of the major cosmetic issues affecting motorhomes as they age.

Markus Baecher, Marketing Manager at Lamilux, says,

Fighting UV ageing

Looking around campsites, it is not just the registration plates that give away how old motorhomes are, it is also how the exterior of the coachbuilt body has faded, which is particularly evident should any of the original graphics have peeled off or been removed. It is this fading – the result of UV damage – that Lamilux says it has solved.

Markus Baecher explains,

He reveals that it has 20 times higher UV stability compared to standard GRP. In fact, this is just one reason why Sunsation has received a special mention in the German Design Awards 2024.

Markus says,

It’s not just the enhanced value when you come to sell that Lamilux says is the appeal of the new Sunsation, it is also the reduced work required to clean and shine a motorhome that has used Sunsation on its outer shell. A surface that doesn’t fade and retains its gloss, does not need to be waxed for preventive protection or subsequent repair. According to Lamilux, this means 90% less effort and expense for waxing.

Markus explains,

Who is Lamilux

Lamilux Composites GmbH, to give it its full name, is a family-run German business with a heritage going back over 100 years, nearly 70 years of which have been in the production of glass fibre-reinforced plastics. It supplies companies around the globe in a wide range of sectors, but its main business is supplying the leisure vehicle industry with these high-strength, lightweight composites that have revolutionised production over the last number of decades.

Markus explains,

As it is Europe’s largest supplier, it is a fair bet your coachbuilt motorhome used its products in its construction, although Markus will not confirm exactly which manufacturers Lamilux supplies.

What makes Lamilux so attractive for manufacturers is not just its scale and range of products, but also that its products are exactly what the motorhome and caravan makers – and their customers – want.

Markus says,

And Lamilux supplies rolls, which have up to 300m of GRP on them, in various thicknesses and widths, as well as in a range of colours and metallics – ever wondered where those coloured coachbuilt bodies that exactly match the base vehicle cab’s colour come from?

In Germany, TÜV – a testing and inspection service – tests, reviews and regulates products and technologies. Its certification and approval is considered the gold standard and is recognised throughout the world. Lamilux is TÜV approved – the only supplier in its sector to have achieved this approval.

The company’s in-house research and development department uses modern laboratory equipment and simulation environments to design composites through all stages in their development, production and lifecycles to automotive standards.

Markus says,

What does this mean for you?

But, while this is all very interesting, how is this relevant to you? After all, it is manufacturers who decide which supplier they use, not the end buyer.

But buyers can – and do – influence which suppliers a manufacturer uses, says Markus.

For example, buyers will favour one base vehicle over another or will look for a model with an Al-Ko chassis or Alde heating. By asking for these elements, buyers influence what suppliers a manufacturer will use and, taken to its conclusion, if a model doesn’t have the elements buyers want, but another model does, then they will effect change with their purchase decision if enough decide to buy the competitor’s model.

So, while Lamilux only supplies manufacturers, buyers can – and are encouraged to – ask their dealer whether the side walls, for example, are Lamilux and whether it includes the new Lamilux Sunsation. Markus encourages buyers of new motorhomes to ask for Sunsation because, he says, it is the world’s most UV-resistant GRP face sheet and a revolutionary development in the world of leisure vehicles.

He says,