tions are, in general, about 30 percent lighter and nearly 20 percent
less costly than the legacy metallic version and ofer much better
collision performance," says Månson. Te joint development began
in 2010, with the design based on modeling, simulation and full
prototype testing. Te bumper meets the Insurance Institute for
Highway Safety (IIHS) 10 kmh (6.2 mph) full barrier requirement
and is slated to launch on two passenger car models in 2014.
Another award-winner is the Part via Preform (PvP) process
developed by Toho Tenax Europe GmbH (Wuppertal, Germany),
which won an AVK Innovation Award at Composites Europe 2013.
Te one-step "bobbin to preform" process uses Tenax carbon fber combined with a binder resin to form a "binder yarn," which
is chopped in an automated process and combined with UD carbon tapes to form complex preforms for high-pressure resin transfer molding, achieving an acceptable tradeof between mechanical
properties and cost, says the company.
Elsewhere, BMW (Munich, Germany) has put in place perhaps
the most complex preforming process to date: the automated preform lines at its Dingolfng and Leipzig plants are currently producing the all-carbon Life Module body for the i3 electric car. Carbon
multiaxial fabrics with binder are preformed in a multistep process.
Te fabrics are assembled in Wackersdorf, Germany, from carbon
fbers produced at its Moses Lake, Wash., facility operated by SGL
Automotive Carbon Fibers (a joint venture between BMW and
Weisbaden, Germany-based SGL Group). According to published
sources, the Life Module comprises 150 separate pieces that are
preformed, with heat (in some cases, ultrasonic energy) to set the
binder, and then resin transfer molded in a high-pressure press.
Concludes Buckley, "Preforming is extremely underappreciated.
It's actually more important than the molding process, but it has so
ofen been overlooked." Given the current auto lightweighting push,
new preform technologies appear to be reaching maturity. | CT |
Technical Editor
Sara Black is CT's technical editor and has
served on the CT staf for 14 years.
sara@compositesworld.com
High temperature vacuum bagging flms are
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Widest in our Industry:
Read "Prepreg preforms for high-rate automotive apps"online | http://short.
compositesworld.com/PSmJC7Ex.
See previous CT coverage of preforming technologies in the following:
"High-volume preforming for automotive application" | CT October 2008 (p.
52) | http://short.compositesworld.com/3QQtyZX7.
CT's sister publication High-Performance Composites has examined preform
approaches within the past year in the following:
"Tailored Fiber Placement: Besting metal in volume production" | HPC
September 2013 (p. 54) | http://short.compositesworld.com/7QEhsvZ0.
"Rapid layup: New 3-D preform technology" | HPC September 2012 (p. 40) |
http://short.compositesworld.com/BtNTN2jN.
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CT oCTober 2013
Read this article online | http://short.compositesworld.com/Mqzr7Fg7.
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