Manufacturers of machines and industries users increase his collaboration around the composites

“Have to work together if we want to develop solutions of automatic manufacture in all the chain of process to help to the necessary reduction of the cost of the final product” affirmed the president of the Fórum of Technologies of Composites of the German association VDMA and member of the council of Krauss Maffei Technologies GmbH Frank Peters. The Fórum, celebrated in Frankfurt, went the first time in which the members of the Fórum of Technologies of Composites of VDMA and the organisations AVK, Carbon Composites and.V. And CFK Valley Stade and.V. They jointed to exchange ideas.

Frank Peters stood out the importance of the narrow cooperation between the manufacturers of machines and plants and the industries users of composites with fibre, as well as between his diverse networks of work. More than 150 assistants had a conversation on subjects related with the automation and on which are the requirements for manufacturers of machines and plants, putting of self-evident the profits of the transfer of knowledge for an in common necessary work.

In his intervention on the challenges of the automation, Klaus Drechsler, Professor of Composites of Carbon in the Technical University of Munich, signalled the plastics reinforced with fibre of carbon (CRP) like the ones of potential elder between all the materials for the light construction, with a potential saving in the costs of the processes of until 90%. “The use of plastics reinforced with fibre of carbon in a to scale industrial production needs still a lot of efforts in investigation, from the science of the materials, going through the structural mechanics until the engineering of processes. The solutions of automation of the manufacturers of machines and plants are the keys for the industrialisation” said Klaus Drechsler.

At present predominates in all the sectors the production with a big manual component. The industries of aviation and of trucks of competition only need series very short of components of CRP, although with some very high exigencias of quality. Axel S. Herrmann Of Airbus Operations expressesed the following: “The use of composites with fibre of high quality and high provision is already settled in the industry of the aviation. The experiences carried out with the manufacture of short series and pieces of big volume also can be transferred to other sectors. They exist sinergias considerable with the industry of the engine, since the pieces for aeroplanes, for example for the new generations of aeroplanes, have to be realised in similar quantities. They will have to develop processes of manufacture very automated to be able to answer to the exigencias of cost and quality. To attain it, need a big transfer of knowledge between all and along all the world”.

The manufacture of pieces of composite will have to be reformed entirely if it wants to enter in the industry of the car the production on a large scale, explained Heinrich Timm of Audi AG. “The light construction goes much more there to reduce the consumptions and the broadcasts. It has to see also with the sustainable saving of resources and with the hygiene. That's why there is a greater interest that never by the light manufacture, that is inspiring ideas in the manufacture of composites from the steel and the aluminium until materials reinforced with fibre. The correct way is the research of the best material for each application, in the lower possible quantity and in the precise place. This wants to say that it is necessary to develop and automate the processes of manufacture and of union for the line of production”. The light components Are using increasingly in the new generations of vehicles mainly, especially to compensate the weight of the batteries of the electrical trucks and to reduce the consumptions in general terms.

In terms of quantity, the plastics reinforced with fibre of glass (GRP) will continue dominating the market of the composites during long. However, the every time greater diameter of the rotor of the turbines of the wind sector is needing, increasingly, combinations of plastics with fibre of glass and plastics with fibre of carbon to be able to improve. On the other hand escasean the ready workers to carry out these tasks in a lot of sectors of application. Rolf Bütje, of Nordex, said to the audience: “Like consequence of the increase of the diameters of the rotors the exigencias of performance of the wind mills keep growing. New methods of manufacture, material and designs can reduce the weight of the shovels and increase his stability. The tools of simulation and the qualities of product pre established are important to help to the German suppliers to keep his position of leaders of market. It requires the knowledge of all the industry of the composites” said Rolf Bütje.

The use of composites with fibre in the production in series requires reliable processes with short cycles and a high level of precision. At the same time, the prices of the fibres of high provision will have to go down to be competitive. The challenge of the manufacture automated is in all the phases: manufacture of the piece moldeada with textile, cutting, manipulation of the materials, processes of injection and endurecimiento, design of the mould, technicians of union and assembling, proofs of the components.