Innovation | thermoplastic composites
degree of rigidity and platen parallelism (platen-paral- lelism control for injection compression moulding is included in the standard version). Handling devices that move straight into the mould area can be integrated to save space. The hydraulic accumulator has been done away with completely, and an ecodrive servo-hydraulic system fitted on the standard version of the machine. Engel developed the v-Duo series specifically for
fibre-reinforced processing applications. A machine in the same clamping force class is installed at BMW’s Landshut factory in Germany, where large structural composite components for the company’s i3 and i8 electric cars are manufactured using high pressure resin transfer moulding (HP-RTM). A 1,700tonne version with integrated HP-RTM from Hennecke was also recently installed in the Composite Research Centre at the University of Warwick, UK. The Wolfsburg v-Duo 3600 is to be fitted with two injection units to ensure it can be deployed with maximum flexibility for various research purposes. Engel is a founder member and sponsor of the
Wolfsburg research centre. It says the Open Hybrid LabFactory association has defined a number of research projects that are now just getting started. Its v-Duo machine is intended for use in the ProVorPlus project, which focuses on functionally integrated process technologies for the pre-assembly of fibre- reinforced plastic/metal hybrids. “One important precondition for successful FRP
projects is that the materials, design and production process mesh in the best possible way,” says Peter Egger, director of Engel’s Center for Lightweight Composite Technologies at its large-scale machine production facility in St. Valentin in Austria. “This can only work if enterprises bundle their expertise along the value chain. Composite engineering needs ‘composite’ development.” Engel says the current focus of its own technology centre is on processing semi-finished thermoplastic
www.injectionworld.com
products (fabrics and tapes), on reactive technologies that use thermosets and thermoplastic systems such as in-situ caprolactam polymerisation and RTM, and on compression technologies for materials such as polyester sheet moulding compound (SMC). Research into the processing of long fibre-reinforced thermoplastics (LFT) by injection moulding and compression moulding is being carried out at the Institute of Plastics Processing (IKV) in Industry and the Skilled Crafts at RWTH Aachen in Germany. Developments in both processes are being demonstrat- ed at its 28th
International Colloquium on Plastics
Technology in late February. The IKV says that in order to also open up new
applications in injection moulding, the availability of reliable calculation processes is essential. “Existing integrative calculation processes for short fibre-rein- forced materials can only be used to a limited extent for the calculation of LFT,” it says. For designing injection- moulded LFT parts, it has developed a new kind of calculation method that takes into account both the local fibre orientations and the fibre length distribution that is characteristic of long fibre-reinforced materials. Fibre orientations in a part are first calculated with a filling simulation by fluid mechanics, and subsequently transferred to a finite element simulation. Fibre length distribution is determined by experiment and then also included in the simulation. With the material model developed at IKV, it is possible to describe the material behaviour of LFT under quasi-static load. This enables a much more precise design of LFT parts than with existing design methods,” the IKV claims. Development of novel injection moulding technology
for composite moulding is underway at UK-based Surface Generation, a provider of advanced materials processing technologies that opened two new technol- ogy demonstration facilities last year. The new demon- stration centres – one at Rutland in the UK and the other at Tapei in Taiwan - will be used to showcase the
January/February 2016 | INJECTION WORLD 25
Above left:
Arburg’s FDC process takes long glass
fibres directly from the reel
and feeds them into the
polymer in the plasticising unit. Above
right: Detailed view of the
fibre feeding unit
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62