OMP Racing, an Italian company and leader in the design and production of safety components for the motorsport industry, and DSM, a global science based company active in health, nutrition and materials, recently signed a multi-year license agreement for the worldwide use of Dyneema in motorsport.

This DSM synthetic fiber, branded as Dyneema, is extremely light and 15 times stronger than steel.

The use of Dyneema will allow for significant increases in the performance of products currently used in motorsport, in compliance with the safety regulations imposed by the international control bodies.

Compared to other materials currently used in this field, such as carbon fibers, Kevlar and titanium, Dyneema fibers are the lightest and have excellent strength to weight ratio.

More specifically, compared with the carbon fiber T400, one of the materials commonly used in motorsport, Dyneema is about 45 percent lighter, and its strength-to-weight ratio is about 50 percent higher.

These characteristics make its use particularly suitable in an industry constantly looking for more efficient solutions in terms of safety and weight.

OMP will start using Dyneema fibers in the manufacture of safety belts. And according to studies carried out in the R&D laboratory of the Ronco Scrivia production plant near Genoa, it could enable a weight reduction of more than 40 percent compared to safety belts previously supplied to Formula 1 vehicles.