UNDER THE HOOD | AUTOMOTIVE
construction continues to be of major interest and that thermoplastic solutions are increasingly being specified over existing thermoset composites. Engel has recently supplied a V-Duo machine to CCP Gransden of Belfast in Northern Ireland – a company with many years’ experience in the development and production of composite components for the automotive industry. CCP Gransden has an increasing focus on thermoplastic materials for lightweight construction in the context of high volumes. So far, mostly sample parts have been produced on the V-Duo: geometrically complex components with multiple reinforcement ribs and functional elements to demonstrate the wide range of applications as well as the moulding precision and platen parallelism control of the V-Duo machine. In the organomelt process or single stage overmoulding, long-fibre reinforced semi-finished products with a thermoplastic matrix are heated, placed into the mould, formed and directly overmoulded with thermoplastic. Engel has also recently supplied an integrated manufacturing cell for overmoulding fibre-reinforced semi-finished products to the National Composites Centre (NCC) in Bristol, UK – a composite research and technology organisation. The NCC is looking at mass production in both automotive and aerospace industries using composite lightweight construction based on thermoplastics for more efficient manufac- turing processes and recycling of obsolete compo- nents. Engel has supplied the first injection moulding machine for the NCC: a Duo 1700 large-scale machine including a Kuka articulated arm robot and an integrated infrared oven. At its recent Technology Days 2019, Arburg identified lightweight construction, electric mobility and autonomous driving as key trends in the automotive industry and highlighted a number of initiatives. These include the ProLemo project for creating a servo motor drive that is 20% lighter. The concept for the series production of lightweight servo motors was developed as part of the German BMBF research project ProLemo (production technologies for efficient lightweight motors). At the Technology Days 2019, a hydraulic two-component Allrounder 570 S with a clamping force of 2,200 kN produced a rotor disc for electric single-axis drive trains in a cycle time of around 60 seconds. First, the internal contour for connection to the shaft is produced from glass fibre-reinforced PA6. A Soft Magnetic Composite consisting of the matrix material PA6 and highly filled with a permalloy is used as the base material for the moulded-on rotor segments. Compared to the original drive with a hollow steel shaft, the metal-filled plastic part reduc-
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es weight by 20% and mass inertia by around 14%. A further demonstration formed magnetising
rotors directly in the mould for E-mobility applica- tions. A hydraulic Allrounder 370 S with a clamping force of 700 kN produced a magnetic sample part with 20 poles from an innovative plastic-bound magnetic compound based on PA12. For this purpose, the ferrite contained in the compound is aligned in the mould using a magnetic field. The cycle time is around 30 seconds, with the part weighing about 7 g. Handling is performed by a Multilift H robotic system. For its Fibre Direct Compounding (FDC) technol- ogy widely used in automotive injection moulding, Arburg has further improved the side feeder as well as the supply of the glass-fibre rovings. The continuous fibres are trimmed and added directly into the liquid melt. This is a cost-effective alterna- tive to processing fibre-filled compounds. With the FDC process, the fibre length, fibre content and material combination can also be adapted on an individual basis and flexibly to influence the part properties in a targeted manner. Further advan- tages include the high availability of the materials and a cost reduction of up to 40%.
CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: �
www.ascendmaterials.com �
www.basf.com �
www.evonik.com �
www.lanxess.com �
www.emsgrivory.com �
www.teknorapex.com �
www.solvay.com �
www.polyone.com �
www.cabotcorp.com �
www.songwon.com �
www.sumitomo-shi-demag.eu �
www.engelglobal.com �
www.arburg.com
May 2019 | INJECTION WORLD 49
Above: Arburg’s hydraulic
two-component Allrounder 570 S with a
clamping force of 2,200 kN produced a rotor disc for electric
single-axis drive trains in a cycle time of around 60 seconds
PHOTO: ARBURG
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