TECHNOLOGY | COMPOSITES
and more experience needs to be gained before the innovative materials and processes for light- weight composites are used on a large scale. It has provided the National Composites Centre (NCC) in Bristol, UK, with an integrated manufacturing cell for over-moulding fibre-reinforced semi-finished products, “paving the way for mass production in both automotive and aerospace industries.” The NCC is one of seven institutes which form the
Catapult Network, probably the closest equivalent in the UK to the Fraunhofer Institutes in Germany, carrying out application-oriented research on new technologies in support of local industry. “Process integration and automation are the
Above: A specially-designed Arburg injection unit with integrated Fibre Direct Compounding can be quickly connected to and disconnected from a Dieffenbacher vertical press
could be easily and quickly modified for economic production of small batches of different designs of hybrid parts, Joppich says. “Many metal-plastics hybrid composites are likely to be made in quite small lots, but the necessary investment in produc- tion equipment is huge. What we wanted to show was how existing installed machinery can be re-arranged in an economic way. The ‘plug and work’ plant architecture we have developed can be adapted in a few hours to produce completely new products. “The consortium developed a general approach
Right: Hybrid composites seat back was developed and produced during the MoPaHyb project
regarding the plant controls [from Siemens], which can be adapted to various processes. We have shown that the system works in an industrial environment, but there are still some fundamental questions we are working on concerning designs and different material combinations. We are looking not only at engineering plastics, but also higher performance polymers for applications in aerospace for example. But before we go further, we need to see where the market interest is, and where the funding will come from.” The system developed in the MoPaHyb project uses standardised production protocols and the OPC UA communication interface, as well as the AML engineering language with a unified descrip- tion of the machinery. “This makes it possible for very different machines from diverse suppliers to interact through a base control unit,” says Joppich. Apart from Diffenbacher and Arburg, the cell also incorporates elements from Siemens (controls), Kuka (robotics), Trumpf (machine tools), A Ray- mond (fastening systems), Vitronic (vision systems) J. Schmalz (vacuum systems), and others. Equipment and technology supplier Engel also says that some challenges still need to be solved
46 INJECTION WORLD | January/February 2019
prerequisites for achieving the unit costs required by the high-volume automotive industry,” says Christian Wolfsberger, Business Development Manager Composite Technologies at Engel’s headquarters in Schwertberg, Austria. Engel supplied a large Duo 1700, 17,000 kN injection moulding machine with a Kuka articulated arm robot and an integrated infrared oven. It is operating with demonstrator moulds based on the geometries of real car components. The sample parts have different sizes and complexities. So far, most parts produced use continuous fibre-rein- forced laminates (organo sheets) to provide the reinforcement. Further developments focus on use of tapes. There is no word on whether metal reinforcements will be used though. “The NCC is an integrated factory,” says its
Principle Research Engineer, Sean Cooper. “All processes can be developed and optimised in the overall context – from material development to simulation, design and processing to recycling. “The interfaces are particularly important when it comes to composites. In no other area are material, design and processing processes so closely inter- twined. If you change only one of these three factors, you end up with a completely different result.”
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PHOTO: FRAUNHOFER ICT
PHOTO: FRAUNHOFER ICT
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