CompositesWorld
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65 CompositesWorld.com NEWS N E W S N S N E W S E N W S W CFK-Valley Stade Convention the automotive and aerospace industries (see Fig. 1, above). Also shown were a wide range of NDT cells, many including robots. Further, integrated and automatic data handling systems were shown to provide high-quality data to ensure transparent, highly efcient machine operations. Dr. Nikos Pantelelis, of Synthesites Innovation Technologies (Piraeus, Greece), reported that an intelligent monitoring system has been developed for the monitoring of composites curing, providing real-time T g indication. A module has been added that also checks the degree of cure in real time by means of measure- ments of the electrical resistance and temperatures. Tis module is specifc for each type of resin. Dr. Carsten Schmidt, an engineering researcher at the Univer- sity of Hannover + IFW (Stade), has redesigned the design process so that manufacturing planners are involved earlier and detailed design happens later. He outlined an innovative design for a fuselage panel that was fulflled by this process, which yielded a 2.3% lighter panel with bigger windows and increased manufac- turability. Te double-curvature of the new design produced a few quality issues for the automated fber placement (AFP) machine, such as gaps between placed tows, but work was undertaken to show that this was predictable and within acceptable tolerances. Dr. Yves-Simon Gloy, head of the Textile Machinery/Production Technologies division at RWTH Aachen University, ITA (Aachen, Germany) returned to the conference theme, raising the question in his presentation title, "Will Industry 4.0 bring an evolution or a [R]evolution to automating composites?" He provided many examples where networked data were used to automate both textile machines and composite processing. His conclu- sion was that it would, indeed, bring a revolution to the composites industry. In his interesting and detailed review of current carbon fber manufacturing capac- ities, costs and methods, Dr. Henry Shin, head of the ICC lab at the Korea Insti- tute of Carbon Convergence Technology (KCTECH, Jeonju, Republic of Korea), showed that the precursor contributes more than half of fber cost and that, in most fber manufacturing scenarios, it is made using a wet-spinning process, which is slow and expensive. He proposed replacing this with melt spinning. It is possible, he claimed, to exceed the Ford Motor Co. (Dearborn, MI, US) specifcation for T300 carbon fber, in strength and modulus, using a precursor made by melt spinning. He was able to ofer a large range of fber diameters, from 28 to 43 μm. Dr. Johannes Treiber, development engineer/project manager for Coriolis Composites GmbH (Augsburg, Germany), presented "Automated Manufacture of Mass Production and Low-cost Mate- rials." Te paper demonstrated how complex parts for aerospace and automotive applications can be made by AFP, followed by press forming. Frank Wunder, Hufschmied Spanungssysytem GmbH (Bobingen, Germany), talked about the high-speed cutting of carbon fber-reinforced polymers (CFRP). Te paper reviewed the current options and their weaknesses: ultrasonic-assisted drilling (high tool wear); CO 2 laser and waterjet (both high-cost systems). Te recommended solution was ultra high-speed machining at 60,000 rpm, with examples of what could be done with such a high-speed system. Darmstadt-based Evonik Industries AG's marketing expert Uwe Lang announced two solutions that address a previous processing weakness for the company's ROHACELL foam: the need to machine or very slowly thermoform the foam to simple shapes. Te latter process involves a preheating period of nearly an hour due to the foam's excellent insulation properties. Lang says a new way has been found to heat the foam by using a selected infrared frequency, which penetrates the material, reducing heat-up times to a few minutes, as the frst stage for what has been renamed a "thermoshaping" process, called the In Mould Forming (IMF) method. Secondly, Evonik has a new version of ROHACELL, named Triple F, that can be molded into complex shapes see Fig. 2, below). FIG. 1 Fully automated production Fill Gesellschaft (Gurten, Austria) showcased the automated production cells supplied for the BMW i3, which include layup lines, ultrasonic joining, preform cells, RTM cells, 3D cutting and braiding cells like those pictured above. Source | Fills Gesellschaft FIG. 2 Foam forms complex shapes, accepts inserts Darmstadt, Germany-based Evonik Industries AG introduced a new version of ROHACELL, called Triple F. The new foam formulation can be molded into very complex shapes. Called the In Mould Forming (IMF) process, a companion "thermoshaping" process enables not only complex contours but also enables integration of metal inserts. Source | Evonik Resource Efciency GmbH