CompositesWorld

NOV 2017

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AUTOMOTIVE CompositesWorld.com 13 SPE ACCE Highlights The Society of Plastics Engineers' Automotive Composites Conference and Exhibition (SPE ACCE), held Sept. 6-8 in Novi, MI, US, remains the composites industry's go-to event for the latest on technology and equipment for automotive composites design, tooling and fabrication. Ford Motor Co. (Dearborn, MI, US) served up a series of presentations summarizing work it did to design, develop and integrate a B-pillar reinforcement for the Ford Focus. Nestled inside a steel pillar, it was manufactured with a prepreg that combines DowAksa (Marietta GA, US) carbon fiber with Dow Automotive (Auburn Hills, MI, US) VORAFUSE P6399 epoxy. Ford developed an automated ply cutting and nesting process for building the laminate, using ultrasonic welding of the epoxy to "stitch" plies together prior to preforming and compression molding steps. The company is still evaluating part performance and options for integrating the part into its vehicle assembly process. Sheet molding compound (SMC), definitely back in vogue (see endnote), was the focus of several presenta- tions. Jeff Klipstein, closed mold technical service special- ist at AOC LLC (Collierville, TN, US), discussed surface and Source | CW On display at ACCE: The rear wall of the Audi R8 Spyder, manufactured by BENTELER-SGL. Highlights: SPE ACCE 2017 performance properties of low-density SMCs (1.0-2.0 SG) and where they are and might be applied in automotive parts. Thomas Skelskey, group leader R&D; specialties – transportation at Ashland (Columbus, OH, US) summarized work he's done on low-VOC, low-odor, low-styrene SMCs. He noted that low-styrene SMC is still relatively expensive, but becoming less so. In addition, he shed light on the obscure and difficult-to-characterize world of odor measurement. Dave Erb, senior R&D; program manager at the University of Maine's Advanced Structures & Composites Center (Orono, ME, US), described work High Performance Tooling for the Composites Industry • Steel • Invar • NVD Nickel • Aluminum • Precision Machining composites@webermfg.ca webermfg.ca Nickel Vapor Deposition capability has led us to be the leading supplier for shell tooling with integrated heating. Ideal for Out of Autoclave, Rotational Molding or Vacuum Infusion. Composite CF parts are complex Weber Knows... Weber Delivers... (continued on p. 14)

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