JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #103 - March 2016 - 64

strategy

For greater efficiency
in lightweight construction

Although a lightweight construction industry without composites is
already inconceivable, there are still great hurdles to be overcome in
industrial production. Creavis, the strategic innovation unit at Evonik,
created an interdisciplinary team to look for solutions.

Dr. Sandra Reemers,
Director of the Composites Project House,
Dr.-Ing. Leif Ickert,
Manager Business and Application
Evonik Creavis GmbH

rom raw materials, to semi-finished
products, to end products, Evonik
serves composite material applications in the lightweight construction
industry with a product portfolio that
covers all essential components. Examples
include the Vestamin® curing component,
the Vestakeep® matrix for thermoplastic
composites, and the Rohacell® structural
foam. In 2013, the specialty chemicals
company began to intensify its strategic
research in order to expand its expertise in
this growth market.

A crosscutting synergy initiative...
The foundation for this was provided by
an approach to innovation that has been
generating momentum at Evonik for 15
years: the founding of a project house. A
project house combines expert knowledge
along the entire value chain from multiple
operational units, supplemented by external expertise. Up to 20 employees come
together for 3 years of interdisciplinary
research on strategically relevant topics
across organizational boundaries. Then,
they take the knowledge gained back to
the business lines to develop technologies
and to commercialize products.
And this was precisely the goal when the

Composites Project House took up its
work in the spring of 2013 (figure 1). It
is the tenth research unit of this type at
Evonik, and denotes just how important
the Group considers composites to be
for the lightweight construction sector.
The company's mid-term target in the
composite market is to achieve sales in the
triple-digit-million euro range.

... focused on customer needs
Based on current and future customer
needs, the research conducted by the
Composites Project House, which has its
main site in Germany, focuses mainly on
the development of new material system
solutions and new, more efficient production processes (figure 2). This overall goal
was divided into five topic areas: 1) flameretardant matrix systems, 2) prepregs
based on hybrid polymer systems, 3)
semi-finished thermoplastics, 4) structural
foams for and in sandwich systems, and 5)
high-quality composite surfaces. On this
basis, it was possible to make significant
progress in a number of areas within three
years.
For instance, for the manufacture of
prepregs, the Project House developed
a new class of materials called thermoreversible hybrid polymers. In contrast to
the polymer component of composite

64 jec composites magazine / No103 March 2016

Fig 1: Evonik's Project House has developed new
solutions for several composite markets

materials currently in use, these can be
processed easily and also give the finished
component very good mechanical properties. They combine the positive properties
of thermoset polymers (mechanically,
thermally, and chemically very stable) with
the advantages of thermoplastic polymers
(fast, simple processing). The crosslinking
of these new types of polymer networks
is completely reversible; no catalyst is
required.
The Project House illustrates the comparatively easy processing of a composite material (prepreg) based on such a material.
Many potential customers have already
been sampled. For impregnation, the fibre
matrix moves through a dispersion of the
hybrid polymers and is then cooled. This
results in continuously produced, preimpregnated semi-finished goods that can
be used to form the desired components

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #103 - March 2016