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C T J U N E 2 0 1 4 2 1 Show Coverage PASSENGER PROTECTION CELLS Tis fourth trend could be the tip of the proverbial auto industry iceberg — but without the Titanic overtones. Taking a page from Formula 1 race car designers, whose carbon fber composite safety cells for drivers are well established on the world's racing circuits, automotive composites fabricators determined collectively to alert automakers to their molding profciencies by displaying carbon fber composite passenger protection cells ("tubs" for short), either for real (typically high-end sports) cars or as capability demonstra- tors. CT stafers counted no fewer than 10 tubs on display. Among them was an impressive display by Mubea Carbo Tech (Salzburg, Austria) of a carbon fber monocoque cell. Te company manufactures tubs for the McLaren MP4-12C supercar, the Porsche 918 Spyder and the Volkswagen XL1. It has recently opened a sec- ond, highly automated production facility in Žebrák, Czech Re- public, which, it says, can deliver 50,000 parts per year via epoxy HP-RTM. (Mubea Carbo Tech also mints carbon composite auto wheels. See "Extended out-time polyurethanes, below.") E700 series carbon fber prepreg from TenCate Advanced Com- posites BV (Nijverdal, Te Netherlands) was used by Adler Group (Naples, Italy) to manufacture another tub monocoque, this one for Alfa Romeo's 4C (photo above). Te car is manufactured in Mode- na, Italy, and 3,500 cars will be produced annually. Carbon fber composites represent 25 percent of the car's overall volume and the monocoque weighs a mere 65 kg/143 lb. Taking a diferent approach, Axon Automotive Ltd. (Wollaston, U.K.), a subsidiary of Far Composites (Nottingham, U.K.), showed a carbon fber monocoque that won the 2012 JEC Innovation Award as a composite automotive Body in Black (BiB) system. STYRENE-FREE THERMOSETS In the wake of recent government scrutiny of styrene in the U.S. (see "Learn More"), Reichhold Inc. (Research Triangle Park, N.C.) said it has cracked the styrene-replacement code for vinyl ester, introducing at JEC a new product called ADVALITE. Te liquid resins can be used in resin transfer molding (RTM), infusion, fla- ment winding, liquid molding and pultrusion processes (see more on p. 40). 3B – Te Fibreglass Co. (Battice, Belgium), won a JEC Innova- tion Award for, and exhibited a wind blade section to demonstrate the capabilities of, a new sizing for its new SE3030 glass roving. It's optimized for use with DSM Composite Resins' (Schafausen, Switzerland) Beyone 201-A-01 styrene- and cobalt-free vinyl ester resin, with 40 percent bio-content. Te two companies are working with Siemens Wind Power (Hamburg, Germany) and DTU Wind Energy (Roskilde, Denmark) to evaluate the fber/sizing/resin com- bination for use in wind blades. Initial tests show that the SE3030/ Beyone 201-A-01 combination ofers desired tensile and shear strength with reduced postcure time and lower temperature thresholds. Te result could be faster blademaking cycles. Cytec Industrial Materials (Woodland Park, N.J.) claimed what it called "the industry's frst application of a volatile- organic compound (VOC)-free thermoset vinyl ester resin/wo- ven glass-reinforced prepreg" in the composite battery pack for the General Motors (GM, Detroit, Mich.) Chevy Spark. Working with GM, molder Continental Structural Plastics (CSP, Troy, Mich.) sought a materials solution from Cytec for the battery pack that would meet formidable processing and performance require- ments: 30° ofset-barrier, side- impact, and rear-barrier crash; 50G impulse shock (x, y and z); post-crash package integrity; fre-resistance testing; 3m/10-f drop testing (bottom/end); 1m/3.3-f water-submersion test; and vibra- tion/shock testing. Cytec's solution, MTM 23, a tailored, self-releas- ing, rapid-cure prepreg, made with Reichhold's new ADVALITE vi- nyl ester, enables CSP to compression mold parts 40 percent lighter than metal alternatives in less than 10 minutes at 150°C/302°F. Cy- tec says MTM 23 can rapid-cure in less than three minutes. EXTENDED OUT-TIME POLYURETHANES Another recent trend, that of delaying the reaction time of polyure- thane (PUR) resins to permit injection of larger and more complex parts (see "Learn More"), was revisited in Paris. A noteworthy example was the roof on the R1 Roadster, a two-seater sports car on display by Roding Automobile GmbH (Roding, Germany). Comprising two rectangular sections, each measuring 772 by 585 by 2 mm (30.4 by 23 by 0.08 inches) and weighing 2.57 kg/5.7 lb, the roof panels are made via a high-pressure RTM (HP-RTM) process developed by Henkel, Krauss-Mafei (Munich, Germany) and Dief- fenbacher. Te matrix is Henkel's Loctite MAX 3 PUR, a three-part formula (resin, hardener and release agent). Te surface PUR is provided by Rühl Puromer GmbH (Friedrichsdorf, Germany). Source | CT / Photo: Jeff Sloan Source | CT / Photo: Jeff Sloan 0614CT ShowJEC-OK-switchphoto.indd 21 5/20/2014 8:27:54 AM