JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #39 - March/April 2008 - 64

SPECIAL JEC COMPOSITES 2008 Name of Product or Process: Automated technology for the production of carbon-fibre preforms. Description: The technology involves making preforms by stitching and thermobonding prefabricated reinforcements together. The objective is to lower the costs of this manufacturing step by resorting less to manual operations. The process utilizes advanced stitching methods and a new thermobonding process. All this is made possible by the use of multiaxial non crimp fabrics (NCF). Nominee: DLR Braunschweig (Germany) Partnership Network: Secar Technologies (Austria) Pultrusion consulting, EADS (France) Lay-up and H-profile dimensioning Name of Product or Process: Automated production line for the manufacture of composite preforms, especially for pultrusion applications. The resulting H-section profiles are used to assemble membrane-shaped carbon fibre reinforced composite (CFRP) parts. The profiles also have to be made of CFRP to ensure compatible thermal expansion coefficients. Description: Tapes of non crimp fabric (NCF) of different widths are combined with woven carbon gusset fillers. The NCF fabrics are lightweight (130 g/m2 per fibre orientation) and coated with binder on one side. The production line has modular design (compatible with a variety of fabrics), with a storage section, a drape-forming and tape-positioning section, a shaping section and an inductive heating system that transfers energy directly into the conductive carbon fibres, resulting in high production speeds (more than 1 m/min). A single drive unit is needed to pull the tapes through the machine and to pull the profile, so that the machine can be combined with a pultrusion unit. Nominee: Cytec Engineered Materials (USA) Partnership Network: Alenia Aeronautica (Italy) Development, design and production of the structural fuselage frames, Cytec Engineered Materials (UK) Prepreg supply and application process development Name of Product or Process: Manufacturing of composite reinforcement frames for use in building an all-composite fuselage structure (composite skins). Description: Until now, metal fuselages have been reinforced with spars, requiring assembly with hundreds of rivets. For carbon composites, this type of assembly is no longer possible, giving rise to the idea of using curved frames for the different fuselage sections. The frames are made from pre-infused braids and unidirectional prepreg fabrics into complex sections (Z, C, or a combination of both). It was necessary to develop two materials: a triaxial curved braid and a resin film to impregnate the braid. The fuselage will consist of a series of frames of varying size to create the fuselage geometry and its mechanical resistance. Nominee: Eurocopter Germany Partnership Network: Aerostruktur Faserverbundtechnik GmbH (Germany) Designed the demonstration part, Fischer (Germany) Designed the preform assembly tooling, University of Bayreuth (Germany) Mechanical characterisation of the materials, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg Lehrstuhl für Kunststofftechnik (Germany) Mechanical characterisation of the materials, Fraunhofer IIS (Germany) Radiographic analysis of the materials AUTOMOTIVE AND VEHICLES Winner: Esoro (Switzerland) and Weber Fibertech (Germany) Independent engineering company Partnership Network: Part production, Smart GmbH (Germany) Part development, ACTS GmbH & Co KG (Germany) System engineering, Dieffenbacher GmbH (Germany) Equipment supplier, LFT-D technology Name of Product or Process: Tailgate assembly for the new Smart models. The first industrial application for E-LFT (Endless-fibre reinforced Long-Fibre Thermoplastic) technology. Description: E-LFT is a one-shot mass-production process that combines a long-fibre-reinforced thermoplastic with continuous (endless) unidirectional fibres to manufacture structural parts. The continuous fibres provide excellent mechanical properties and can be placed so as to follow the load paths. The assembly consists of a tailgate with a storage compartment and a hinged cover with visibly grained surface. Both parts had to meet crashworthiness requirements. Advantages or Salient Features: Compared to the previous solution, the parts meet higher rigidity and crashresistance requirements, at 10% lower cost. A single design is used for all three models (standard, cabriolet and coupé). Functional integration provides higher strength and additional storage area. The concept, which allows for great design freedom, uses low-cost materials (PP/glass fibre), but offers high crash resistance and lower weight compared to a metal solution. The assembly demonstrates the advantages of the process, which could be used for other car models. State of development: Production of the Smart ForTwo tailgate was launched in January 2007. The parts were designed using numerical simulation and a series of tests that focused on the strength of the cover in a frontal crash. JEC Composites Magazine / No39 March-April 2008

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #39 - March/April 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #39 - March/April 2008