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IACMI announces project to improve automotive composites
Reinforced Plastics Volume 60, Number 6 November/December 2016
TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
The new machine has been custom built to ELG Carbon Fibre’s exacting specifications and can produce a variety of nonwoven materials including 100% recycled carbon fiber mats and thermoplastic blends such as carbon fiber mixed with PP, PA, PPS fibers. Reconfiguration of the standard nonwoven manufacturing process was required to ensure the equipment could accept and process recycled carbon fibers. Special adaptations were made to limit fiber loss, breakage and cleaning cycles. The machine can also use reclaimed carbon fibers that have been obtained through pyrolysis of scrap prepreg materials or cured laminates.
New applications The equipment features a flexible, modular based design that allows extension of its initial capacity of 250 mt/pa to a maximum output of 1000 mt/pa within 9–12 months as customer demand increases. It can produce webs ranging from 100–500 gsm at widths up to 2.7 m and, depending on the final mat thickness, roll lengths will range from 30 to 50 m.
According the company, the materials will be suitable for OEMs in the transportation sector seeking alternatives to virgin carbon fiber for vehicle lightweighting.
‘With the correct design, nonwoven recycled carbon fiber can be used very successfully to manufacture low cost, lightweight structures using most high-volume manufacturing processes,’ said Frazer Barnes, MD of ELG Carbon Fibre. ‘It seems that new
applications for these materials are being identified every week, making this an exciting and progressive time for the company and our technology.’ ELG Carbon Fibre; www.elgcf.com
IACMI announces project to improve automotive composites The Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation, IACMI, has launched a project aimed at decreasing the cost of manufacture while increasing the design flexibility for automotive composites. Developed in partnership with DuPont Performance Materials, Fibrtec Inc and Purdue University, the new IACMI project will address the problems of cost and design constraints in automotive applications through, it says, ‘a fundamentally different approach to the manufacturing of carbon fiber composites versus those currently in use today’. The work will make use of Fibrtec’s flexible coated tow formed into flexible fabric prepregs using a rapid fabric formation (RFF) technology along with a polyamide resin from DuPont. The final component could benefit from increased production speeds of the tow manufacturing process and the fabric forming process resulting in a lower cost of manufacture. According to IACMI, composite parts made by this process have lower voids and improved
IACMI has launched a project aimed at decreasing the cost of manufacture while increasing the design flexibility for automotive composites.
mechanical properties when consolidated by traditional techniques. The flexible fabric prepregs have also been shown to have good draping behavior in molding experiments. Researchers in the Purdue University Composites Manufacturing and Simulation Center will work with the team to model and validate drapability and part performance.
‘By leveraging the strengths of all project partners, we have the potential to create a unique commercially viable path to high volume, low cost thermoplastic composite automotive components,’ said Jan Sawgle, DuPont Performance Materials, project manager. IACMI-The Composites Institute; www.iacmi. org
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TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
The new machine has been custom built to ELG Carbon Fibre’s exacting specifications and can produce a variety of nonwoven materials including 100% recycled carbon fiber mats and thermoplastic blends such as carbon fiber mixed with PP, PA, PPS fibers. Reconfiguration of the standard nonwoven manufacturing process was required to ensure the equipment could accept and process recycled carbon fibers. Special adaptations were made to limit fiber loss, breakage and cleaning cycles. The machine can also use reclaimed carbon fibers that have been obtained through pyrolysis of scrap prepreg materials or cured laminates.
New applications The equipment features a flexible, modular based design that allows extension of its initial capacity of 250 mt/pa to a maximum output of 1000 mt/pa within 9–12 months as customer demand increases. It can produce webs ranging from 100–500 gsm at widths up to 2.7 m and, depending on the final mat thickness, roll lengths will range from 30 to 50 m.
According the company, the materials will be suitable for OEMs in the transportation sector seeking alternatives to virgin carbon fiber for vehicle lightweighting.
‘With the correct design, nonwoven recycled carbon fiber can be used very successfully to manufacture low cost, lightweight structures using most high-volume manufacturing processes,’ said Frazer Barnes, MD of ELG Carbon Fibre. ‘It seems that new
applications for these materials are being identified every week, making this an exciting and progressive time for the company and our technology.’ ELG Carbon Fibre; www.elgcf.com
IACMI announces project to improve automotive composites The Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation, IACMI, has launched a project aimed at decreasing the cost of manufacture while increasing the design flexibility for automotive composites. Developed in partnership with DuPont Performance Materials, Fibrtec Inc and Purdue University, the new IACMI project will address the problems of cost and design constraints in automotive applications through, it says, ‘a fundamentally different approach to the manufacturing of carbon fiber composites versus those currently in use today’. The work will make use of Fibrtec’s flexible coated tow formed into flexible fabric prepregs using a rapid fabric formation (RFF) technology along with a polyamide resin from DuPont. The final component could benefit from increased production speeds of the tow manufacturing process and the fabric forming process resulting in a lower cost of manufacture. According to IACMI, composite parts made by this process have lower voids and improved
IACMI has launched a project aimed at decreasing the cost of manufacture while increasing the design flexibility for automotive composites.
mechanical properties when consolidated by traditional techniques. The flexible fabric prepregs have also been shown to have good draping behavior in molding experiments. Researchers in the Purdue University Composites Manufacturing and Simulation Center will work with the team to model and validate drapability and part performance.
‘By leveraging the strengths of all project partners, we have the potential to create a unique commercially viable path to high volume, low cost thermoplastic composite automotive components,’ said Jan Sawgle, DuPont Performance Materials, project manager. IACMI-The Composites Institute; www.iacmi. org
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