The conveyor has outlets at each end so that the existing and a future, planned mill can be served. The conveyor has the declumping feature at each outlet, with supply controlled by which direction the auger is run in. When constructing reversible discharge screws, it is essential to ensure the flights are completely uniform otherwise the screw may compact material when running in one of the directions. The elevator features a long single span screw to avoid any potential blockages, effectively configured for pushing the poor flow fibre up the incline and minimise service needs.

Commenting, Scott Keil, manufacturing manager at Mersen, said, “After the recent success of working with Ajax to upgrade an existing line we were happy to work with them again on this new line. Commissioning with the new multi-screw system has gone exceptionally well with production totally satisfied that the Ajax feed of product to our mill is consistent and indeed superior to our original Silo set up.”

“Recently Ajax has seen a trend in projects requiring very large multi-screw feeders including two identical 11m quadruple screw feeders for a waste-to-energy facility and the sextuple screw feeder for Mersen. In these projects multi-screw feeders enable active extraction from high capacity hoppers with wide outlets, ensuring consistent supply of material for the processing line. Having adopted a hopper design which has a large outlet to secure flow it is critical that the feeder extracts over the full area and Ajax feeders are very adept at this,” said Eddie McGee, managing director, Ajax Equipment.

The Mine refines granulated nickel matte from their smelter into premium-grade nickel powder and briquettes containing 99.8% nickel. Nickel powder is further processed into nickel sulphate at a Refinery in Australia. Nickel sulphate is an essential ingredient in the lithium-ion batteries that drive electric vehicles (EVs). It could be argued that the increase in sales of EVs is one of the biggest climate wins of 2023. Indeed, according to the 2023 Report from Climate Action Tracker, of the 42 sectors which need to achieve net zero status by 2050, the only sector which is on track is the share of EVs in light-duty vehicle sales. Considering how road transport currently accounts for 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions, EVs play a vital role in reducing these emissions.

As such, the polymeric technology required to repair and improve assets within the EV industry equally plays a vital role in supporting the transition to net zero. By repairing damaged assets instead of decommissioning and sending them to landfill, this significantly reduces the climate impact that would otherwise be incurred in this process.

Case study: Feed tank suffering from corrosion

Under Insulation & SCC The Customer’s stainless steel feed tank was suffering from corrosion under insulation and chloride induced stress corrosion cracking. They required a solution that would not only restore the integrity on the substrate, but also protect the asset against future corrosion damage. Not only this, but as the tank operates at elevated temperatures of approximately 70°C (158°F) and processes highly corrosive medium, the repair solution would need to be able to withstand these harsh conditions.

Rezitech specifies Belzona composite wrap solution

Having worked with Rezitech over the course of five years, the Customer had complete confidence in the range of Belzona metal epoxy repair composites and industrial repair coatings the Distributorship offers. As such, they decided to contact them again for their advice and system recommendation.

Following an inspection by Heath Westell, Sales Engineer at Rezitech, the composite wrap system, Belzona SuperWrap II, was specified.

Commenting on this specification, Heath said: “This composite wrap system is comprised of a fluid-grade resin system, a bespoke hybrid reinforcement sheet, based on fibre glass and carbon fibre, as well as a release film to compact and consolidate the application. The system is specially formulated to restore the strength of holed, weakened and corroded pipe and tank walls, making it the ideal solution for protecting the asset against corrosion under insulation for the long term. In addition, thanks to the cold-curing properties of the composite wrap system, this mitigates the need for hot work, making it a reliable alternative to welding.”

Application procedure:

Firstly, all traces of oil and grease contamination were removed using a suitable Rezitech Degreaser. Following this, the surfaces were grit-blasted to provide a surface cleanliness compliant with ISO 8501-1 SA 2½ (ASNZ 1627.4 class 2.5) with a minimum 75 μm (3 mil) rough angular profile.

Once the surface was prepared, the Belzona 9381 reinforcement sheet was measured out and then wetted out with the Belzona resin system. The resin was then systematically applied to the areas to be repaired. Following this, the Belzona reinforcement sheets were then applied to the tank in three layers. The compression film was then added to the top of the application area. Next, using a roller, the Belzona SuperWrap II composite wrap system was then spread, rolled and compressed to the surface of the tank. The system was then left to cure for approximately eight hours.

Bypass the need for replacement with polymeric technology

By investing in the Belzona composite wrap solution, this enabled the Customer to successfully bypass the need to replace the corroded asset, and instead prolong the lifespan of the asset for years to come. Thus, this enabled the Customer to make significant savings in both time and money. In addition, given the important role EVs play in reducing global carbon emissions, it could be argued that polymeric technology also plays a fundamental role in supporting this transition by safeguarding the integrity of key assets within this industry.

“We’re extremely proud to see our filament winding technology forming part of the NCC’s world-leading Hydrogen Programme,” says Cygnet Texkimp CEO Luke Vardy.

“The work of the NCC and its partners stands at the forefront of an exciting new era of hydrogen tank design and development and plays an important role in anchoring this area of manufacture in the UK.

“The technology we’ve delivered offers high levels of flexibility and capability to meet the requirements of many different filament winding applications and support the NCC’s pioneering development work.”

Marcus Walls-Bruck, Head of Hydrogen at the National Composites Centre said, “Acquisition of the Filament Winding machine builds on our investment in capability development for hydrogen, with this machine predominantly focused at pressure vessels.

“It will help the UK create supply chains to achieve its net-zero ambitions. A key technology that underpins our state-of-the-art design, test and manufacturing facility for hydrogen, it will be used to create pressure vessels for a number of applications, with this capability supporting industry in developing business cases and products to enter this growing market.”

The filament winder is designed to wind four tows simultaneously. Each tow has its own tension control unit and dancer arm which regulates feeding and winding tension to enable faster and more accurate winding.

A customised software package, developed by Cygnet Texkimp’s in-house team, also allows the NCC to record data including winding tension and speed, resin temperature and air pressure within the mandrel.

The filament winder is served by two four-position creels, which are designed to feed different types of fibre into the process. A towpreg creel unwinds and guides towpreg material into the winder and is an essential part of a novel solution designed to completely isolate the tension required at the bobbin from the tension desired during the winding phase, in order to ensure that the fibre is fed optimally at all times. A second, dry fibre creel feeds fibres into the process at low tension and high accuracy and is enclosed to prevent the release of airborne debris into the environment.

The machine also features two types of in-line spreading and coating capability which can be quickly and easily deployed for dry-wind applications: a temperature-controlled wet-out system with adjustable spreader bars to spread individual fibre tows for consistent resin impregnation, and a coating drum and blade to control the volume of resin applied to the fibre. Both of these methodologies will be investigated by the NCC for their suitability in winding applications across a range of applications.

This multi-agitator system is equipped with independently controlled drives and is highly efficient at producing good turnover and imparting shear to a viscous batch. Powered by a 300 HP TEFC inverter duty motor, the High Speed Disperser runs at tip speeds up to 5,000 feet per minute, inducing high shear forces while the 60 HP Three-Wing Helical Anchor Agitator feeds product towards the disperser blade and ensures that the mixture is constantly in motion.  Teflon scrapers on the anchor wipe materials from the vessel wall, enhancing heat transfer from the jacket.

The Eagle C135 continuously conveys rolled material good with consistent speed and control, delivering unrivaled levels of material utilization. The computer controlled (CNC) ply-cutting system is engineered for single- to low-ply automatic cutting of flexible fabrics and requires minimal operator guidance to automatically feed and spread material. The conveyor system is completely customizable based on application needs and available footprint.

It is the system of choice for thousands of manufacturers around the world due to its industrial build, durable components, and proven rack & pinion drive system. The Eagle C135 system features cutting speeds up to 60 inches per second (152cm/second). Material to be cut at the fair includes Vectorply e-glass, NEXX-Technologies prepreg carbon, and Lantor Soric®.

Meet Eastman at JEC World 2023, hall 6, stand D59.

All projects comprise the engineering and subsequent construction, installation and start-up of turn-key lines dedicated to the recycling of polyolefin, either polypropylene or polyethylene, with different density and possibility to add fillers and/or modifiers depending on the single set-up.  

The selected extruders have enhanced degassing systems for efficient extraction of contaminants. The high torque of the extruders also provides an optimal filling of the screw and therefore a maximum production output in the range of 2 to 4 tons per hour depending on size of extruders, filtering tasks and type and/or density of the scrap.

Single systems of the line are generally integrated into ICMA’s control panel, and all cabinets have remote control gates for efficient post-sale service.

All lines are equipped with gravimetric dosing systems and with forced feeders, in its latest design and when appropriate, for light scraps, notably difficult to feed into the extruder.

Thermoregulation system is highly precise and is made following the strict standards used in engineering compounds where also square design for barrels is a must in modern extruders.

Filtration systems, depending on the setup of the different lines delivered, can achieve 80 microns to guarantee maximum purity of the processed scrap with limited sacrifice for output range.

 Underwater pelletizers are set at the end of each line, necessarily for big outputs.

“Sustainability and ESG policies are more and more driving processors to invest in advanced mechanical recycling “says Giorgio Colombo, MD at ICMA “our latest generation of co-rotating extruders combined with 50 years of experience as turn-key specialist in this field makes ICMA the partner of choice in this dynamic and challenging industry”.

Proven technology
The process of manufacturing prepregs is proven and qualified throughout the composites industry, and this is important, particularly for safetycritical markets such as aerospace. Therefore, while the design of Cygnet Texkimp’s prepreg processing lines has evolved in line with customers’ needs, including optimisation for precision, consistency and speed, the fundamental principles of the process, and the structure and layout of the machines, have remained constant. However, the company believed there was a place for more rigorous innovation in prepreg manufacture that would accommodate the established principles of the process while at the same time offering the industry more in terms of reducing machinery footprint, energy consumption and costs.

In 2021, Cygnet Texkimp became part of the ASCEND programme to develop the technical and supply chain capability to achieve high-grade, composites-intensive components at rate for high-volume markets. This four-year, €46 million (£40 million) UK-based programme is led by Tier-1 aerospace supplier GKN Aerospace with funding from the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) programme. The company’s role in the consortium is to develop the technology to make prepreg and towpreg materials viable in more mainstream markets including high-volume automotive. This gave them the mandate and the investment to show how prepreg manufacturing technology could better meet the industry’s need for cost, energy and space efficiency.

Challenging convention
The patent-pending Multi Roll Stack is a unidirectional (UD) and fabric prepreg impregnation machine comprising a series of compaction rollers configured vertically. It is a major departure from conventional in-line prepreg machines, which incorporate separate compaction stations arranged in a horizontal line. In contrast, the Multi Roll Stack features a single compaction module containing multiple compaction rollers arranged vertically.

In both cases, the UD fibre, or fabric substrate, is passed between the compaction rollers where it is squeezed together with the resin. The squeezing action forces the resin into the fibres to create the prepreg material. The point where two compaction rollers come together is known as a nip, and achieving the necessary level of impregnation usually requires successive nips. The level of impregnation increases with each pass as the gaps between material and resin are removed. To achieve the right level of impregnation at an acceptable processing speed, four, five or even six nips might be specified, particularly for very-high-tolerance applications where precise areal weight, thickness and uniformity are required.

In a conventional prepreg processing line, each nip is housed separately and is made up of two rollers. Creating four nips therefore requires eight rollers. In the Multi Roll Stack, however, the rollers are arranged in close succession, effectively stacked on top of each other, which means that two nips can be created using only three rollers. This economy is multiplied as more nips are added, with four rollers needed to create three nips and five rollers to create four nips –rather than the six or eight rollers needed in a conventional line. As well as saving space, this also reduces the cost of additional precision-machined rollers.

Roller configuration
As with Cygnet Texkimp’s conventional prepreg manufacturing technologies, each roller in the Multi Roll Stack is ground to achieve very high levels of accuracy, which in turn ensures precision and uniformity in the way the resin is applied to the fibre. This is further enhanced by the internal roller design, with a heating mechanism that creates uniform temperature across the entire roller.

Another advantage of stacking the rollers is that they take up less space. This leads to less deflection or bending of the rollers as a result of the high pressures created during impregnation. Without this protective sandwiching action, the variation in resin application and impregnation caused by roller deflection would be extremely small, but even tiny variations in uniformity can affect the performance of the finished part, particularly in extremely demanding applications such as lightweight, safety-critical parts for aerospace and automotive.

Reducing energy costs
With fewer rollers to heat, the Multi Roll Stack immediately delivers energy savings. Further savings are created because the material does not need to travel between compaction stations, or nips, and therefore is not subject to the heating-cooling cycle that is characteristic of conventional lines. The space between compaction stations in a conventional prepreg machine represents an opportunity for heat energy to be lost from the process. More energy is subsequently needed to heat the material up again at the next compaction station in order to reach the optimum temperature for successful resin impregnation. The design of the Multi Roll Stack means that the material maintains more surface contact with the heated rollers. The full extent of this enhanced contact is dependent on the chosen web path –the route in which the fibre is driven through the process– which can be varied according to the application. In some S-wrap configurations, for example, the material does not leave contact with the rollers from the moment it enters the process to the point at which the finished prepreg exits. The cumulative energy savings achieved by eliminating the coolingheating cycle and maintaining constant temperatures throughout the process are significant.

The compact size and stacked layout of the Multi Roll Stack also means that fewer drives are needed to feed the material at the correct speed and tension around the rollers and through the process. A single drive is sufficient to power a four-roll, three-nip version of the machine, whereas the equivalent conventional machine providing three compaction stations would require a total of six rollers and a single drive at each station to feed the material through the entire length of the process. Using one drive to power the entire process also guarantees consistent speed matching between the rollers.

Shortened web path
The configuration of the Multi Roll Stack gives manufacturers the opportunity to select the optimum web path for their application. This varies from S-wrap to straight-through nip and depends on the type of fibre or fabric being processed and the viscosity or thickness of the resin being applied. Regardless of the path selected, the fibre length through the compaction zone is typically half that of a conventional line. The implication of this is that up to 50% less fibre is needed to set up or thread up the machine ready for processing to begin. It is widely accepted in the industry that the…

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Capable of reaching a top speed of 360 kph (225 mph) in just 30 seconds from a standing start, it’s designed to set the bar for performance and technology in the radical new sport of piloted Airspeeder racing. This now opens the door to OEM teams to join Airspeeder in a motorsport revolution, as it unveils the world’s first, and fastest, crewed flying racing car for performance sports.

“We have built the vehicles, developed the sport, secured the venues, attracted the sponsors and technical partners. Now is the time for the world’s most progressive, innovative and ambitious automotive brands, OEM manufacturers and motorsport teams to be part of a truly revolutionary new motorsport.” said Matt Pearson, CEOAlauda Aeronautics

With its sophisticated electric propulsion system, advanced aerodynamics and a take-off weight (MTOW) of just 950kg, the Airspeeder Mk4 is also extremely efficient, with a projected range of 300km (188 miles) while producing near-zero emissions.The Airspeeder Mk4 is powered by a 1,000 kW (1,340 horsepower) turbogenerator which feeds power to the batteries and motors. Specifically designed for use in eVTOLs, this revolutionary technology allows green hydrogen to be used as fuel, providing safe, reliable and sustainable power over long distances and flight times.

The Mk4 has a projected range of over 300 km (188 miles). As well as taking the existing eVTOL industry into the next-generation H2eVTOL era, this technology has the potential to significantly reduce emissions and create a sustainable future for individual air travel.

“The commissioning of the FPP system in Hall 43 provides us with excellent conditions to drive forward research in the areas of digitalization and AI in composite manufacturing. Both the environment and the existing AI production network consortium are ideal for exploring such approaches. We hope to transfer approaches successfully tested at the FPP system to other manufacturing technologies as well”, comments Dr. Renato Bezerra, Research Associate & Project Lead from the institute.

The Cevotec SAMBA system features a laser cutting unit in order to ensure maximum flexibility in terms of geometry and patch edges. The entire material feed is temperature-controlled, so that the pre-impregnated materials can be processed in a controlled environment. The robots in the system are the proven pair of TP80 pick-and-place robot and the TX200 tool manipulator from Stäubli. “This configuration enables a high lay-up frequency combined with a very high positioning accuracy, allowing for a fully automated lay-up of complex geometries of medium to small dimensions,” explains Dr. Dimitrios Sikoutris, Expert Composites & FPP Technology at Cevotec.

“We look forward to further developing the FPP technology together with Fraunhofer IGCV and to opening up new fields of application”, states Thorsten Groene, CEO and Co-Founder of Cevotec. “The production system serves interested companies from various sectors for active technology and application development, together with the researchers of the Fraunhofer Institute.” Dr. Renato Bezerra adds: “In addition to research focusing on AI and digitization, interested partners can use the SAMBA system to investigate and evaluate the feasibility of components in FPP design and develop components for transfer to series production.”

Photo: SAMBA Pro Fiber Patch Placement system of Fraunhofer IGCV in new AI research hall “Hall 43” of Augsburg University. From left to right: Marc Kornmesser (Cevotec), Marc Alexander (Cevotec), Dr. Renato Bezerra (IGCV), Dr. Dimitrios Sikoutris (Cevotec)

Clean Sky 2’s OUTCOME project has devised a sustainable manufacturing process for producing a 4m x 1m thermoplastic-stiffened upper skin for the external wingbox (wingbox cover) of a regional/utility (Airbus C-295) aircraft. The project feeds into Clean Sky 2’s Airframe ITD D1-4/6 demonstrator, an advanced composite wingbox (the central structure of an aircraft that connects the wings with the main body/fuselage). 

OUTCOME’s main premise was to switch from using thermosetting plastic⁽¹⁾, which requires processing in an autoclave⁽²⁾ (a high-energy consuming type of industrial oven) to the use of thermoplastics, using an energy-efficient ‘out-of-autoclave’ ‘one-shot process’. This is a production method where sequential production steps are integrated into a unified process involving ‘lamination and consolidation’, a method of combining different parts (in this case the wingbox cover ‘skin’ and reinforcing stiffening structures called stringers⁽³⁾. This saves time and energy resources – an environmental win. The project aligns with the aeronautics sector’s shift to thermoplastics which are lighter than their metal counterparts.

Recyclability potential

Another key environmental driver of OUTCOME was that “Thermoplastic materials are reversible, and manufactured parts can be reconsolidated, thus reducing the number of non-quality parts that could not be used in a real demonstrator,” explains Mar Zuazo Ruíz, R&D composites specialist at FIDAMC, Spain’s Centre of Excellence for research, development and innovation in composite material technologies, and project coordinator of OUTCOME. This ‘reversibility’ means that at the end of the component’s operational service life, the material can be recycled for use in future products.

An additional advantage thermoplastics offer is their environmental value in terms of reducing potential contamination. Rubén Tejarina Hernanz, Airframe R&T Manager for Integration at Airbus Defense and Space (ADS), the Topic Manager for OUTCOME, explains the background: ADS has been involved in this technology since around 2010 when we saw that thermoplastics could be an alternative to the thermosets for use on primary and secondary structures. We saw their sustainability potential in addressing not just recyclability of materials but to also help us meet EU REACH⁽⁴⁾ contamination regulations.

Around 2007 FIDAMC had also initiated projects using thermoplastics. These mutual interests converged through Clean Sky activities which Airbus, as Airframe ITD demo co-project leader, proposed, launching a call for core partners to explore the potential of thermoplastic technologies. At that point, FIDAMC, along with aerostructures design and manufacturing specialists Aernnova, formed the OUTCOME consortium.

A key sustainability enabler underpinning the project was the consortium’s decision to use a thermoplastic called Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) – a material which matches the performance properties of thermosets, even surpassing them in terms of ageing and damage tolerance, while bringing valuable weight savings. PEEK made it possible to reinforce the wingbox cover using stringers without the need for fasteners (bolts or rivets) which would have added weight and complexity.

A successful outcome

Clean Aviation Project Officer Dr. Sonell Shroff notes that “The consortium succeeded in reaching its objectives in a single trial, confirming predictions regarding spring-back⁽⁵⁾, and was successful in anticipating potential issues with the co-curing process. This could have been tricky, as when you attach the stringers you can have a lot of tension and difference in stresses in the two parts.” She emphasises that, 

“The project represents a substantial achievement in terms of replacing thermoset with thermoplastic, bringing energy savings, minimum wastage and scrapping. The consortium was spot on with their analysis and coupon tests – a lot of effort has been put into this whole process.” said Dr. Sonell Shroff, Project officer at Clean Aviation

The project results feed into Clean Sky 2’s Eco Transverse Activities (TA), working towards understanding the ecological benefits across the full lifecycle of components. ADS’s Rubén adds that, “It’s uncommon to carry out R&T projects at full scale component testing, as it is planned to do within AIRFRAME ITD, but on OUTCOME the component was designed and manufactured using the same approach as if it were to become a certified prototype. We performed the same tests that apply when submitting evidence to the airworthiness authorities and the resulting technology is applicable on horizontal or vertical tailplane structures. This could be beneficial for the future of European aviation.”

An EcoStatement study, documenting the assessment of the full wingbox is being compiled by Airframe ITD and processed by ECO-TA, with results expected at the end of 2023. In the meantime, OUTCOME technology is already being applied in Clean Aviation’s HERWINGT and FASTER-H2 projects.

OUTCOME ran between January 2016 and December 2023 with the ‘wingbox cover’ manufacturing occurring between June 2022 and January 2023. The project budget of €600 000 was provided by the EU. OUTCOME was coordinated by FIDAMC, and supported by Aernnova. Airbus Defense and Space was the Topic Manager.

References:
(1) Thermosetting plastics are strong; however, they require high temperatures and use costly energy process. Their potential for recycling is poor.
(2) An autoclave is a type of industrial oven which ‘bakes’ composite materials into a stable and permanent state. An ‘out-of-autoclave’ process stabilises the material without the need for an autoclave, thereby saving energy, time and resources – it is a more environmentally friendly process.
(3) Stringers are long and thin reinforcing structures that add rigidity to the skin.
(4) REACH is an EU regulation which improves the protection of human health and the environment from the risks that can be posed by chemicals.
(5) Spring-back is an unwanted condition whereby a composite/plastic part becomes distorted from its intended shape during the curing process after it is released from the tool.

Craig Ryan, integrated product team director, Space Systems, Eaton’s Aerospace Group said:
“Our VITA can help transform the satellite industry. The efficient design of the VITA feed system requires less space on the satellite bus, plus it saves integrators significant procurement, assembly, testing, troubleshooting and rework effort.”

VITA will play a critical role in helping propel satellites to final orbit and in station-keeping to maintain orbital position. By enabling additional payload flexibility and control over which type of fuel can be included on a satellite mission, the VITA design supports the growing satellite industry, especially in the highly competitive area of small satellite providers.

“We have the infrastructure to quickly meet high demand volume and are currently taking orders,” said Ryan. “We look forward to supporting the success of a wide range of leaders and emerging innovators in the rapidly growing satellite market.”

The innovative design of Eaton’s VITA eliminates the feed system envelope by integrating proportional flow valve technology into a housing that is then integrated into the neck of a lightweight composite propellant tank. The initial configuration of the VITA solution has two redundant shut-off valves to support one thruster for increased reliability. The drop-in VITA design approach supports modular satellite configurations, making architectural changes easier. Qualified in testing with xenon, this system has demonstrated to be fully compatible with krypton as well. The valve and tank assembly can be pre-filled with propellant and shipped ready to install.

About Eaton Aerospace Group:
Eaton’s proven and trusted space propulsion technologies include tanks, valves, regulators and feed systems to provide customized solutions to meet specific customer requirements.

Eaton’s mission is to improve the quality of life and the environment through the use of power management technologies and services. They provide sustainable solutions that help their customers effectively manage electrical, hydraulic, and mechanical power – more safely, more efficiently, and more reliably. Eaton’s 2020 revenues were $17.9 billion, and they sell products to customers in more than 175 countries. They have approximately 85,000 employees.

Honeycomb core materials, such as aramid, aluminium, and fibreglass, are used in areas such as interiors, winglets, spoilers and many other parts in commercial and military aircraft, helicopters and similar.

The rotor blades of wind turbines are becoming ever larger to increase energy efficiency. This places higher demands on lightweight materials. Rotor blade core materials include (recycled) PET, PVC rigid foams, balsa wood and others.

Rigid foam panels (e.g. PET, PU) and honeycomb structures (e.g. PP) are used in transport vehicles, trains and ships to form interior fittings, side walls, roofs, floors, partitions, sanitary fixtures, etc.

Typically, these lightweight core materials are further processed into a form of sandwich panel structure by reinforcing them with glass or carbon fibres, for example, to increase their stiffness.

Sawing process – the requirements

Through various cost-intensive processes, these lightweight core materials (be they aramid honeycombs, rigid PET foam, PP honeycombs or balsa wood) are initially used to produce a high-value raw block.

Horizontal sawing is one of the main processes throughout the value chain to produce the end products listed above. To save as much of the high-quality materials as possible during sawing, the focus is on a very thin kerf with a high degree of precision and productivity at the same time: the thinner the kerf, the less raw material is lost during sawing. Special horizontal band saw machines and saw blades are used to produce the above-mentioned components, which fulfil these requirements.

When sawing aramid honeycombs with a cutting width of more than 2 metres using horizontal band saws, customers achieve kerfs smaller than 1 mm, for example, depending on the workpiece type.

To be able to achieve considerable material savings in the long term, every tenth of a millimetre of kerf counts. At the same time, tight thickness tolerances of less than +/- 0.15 mm must be achieved when using extremely thin saw blades.

In addition to the thickness tolerances (in the range of +/- 0.3 mm), the resin up-take is also important when using PET rigid foam panels for rotor blades for wind power plants; this in turn depends on the surface quality after sawing. Different objectives – such as optimum surface quality with high productivity and the thinnest possible kerf – place high demands on the sawing process and on the selection of suitable saw blades.

Sawing process and saw blade – the objectives

A range of objectives can be considered in different orders of priority when sawing these lightweight core materials, depending on the application and material. Typical objectives for aramid honeycombs include a high degree of precision in conjunction with very low thickness tolerances of just +/- 0.05 mm. Next comes the requirement for maximum productivity with feed rates of up to 15 m/min for PET rigid foam. Further demands placed on the sawing process include a defined surface quality, e.g., minimal fibres in aramid honeycombs, prevention of scratches and optimised resin uptake in PET and balsa wood. The lowest possible material loss is achieved for example with a thin kerf. Thanks to high precision cutting technology material can also be saved by avoiding a trim cut after each saw blade change. High machine availability due to less saw blade changes, longer lifetime of the saw blade as well as the repeatability of the cutting results are also essential.

Using suitable saw blades with the appropriate cutting parameters plays a crucial role to achieve these objectives. A large range of different process options makes it easier to optimise these targets according to the application and priority.

Suitable saw blades for the respective application are tested in the test centre in collaboration with the customer. Hereby a variety of saw blades are used, from extremely thin saw blades (e.g. thickness of 0.5 mm) to strong bands (e.g. 1.1 mm thickness and widths of up to 34 mm). The types of saw blades varies as well: hardened teeth, bi-metal, stellite-tipped or carbide-tipped teeth, to name just a few examples.

In addition to using the right saw blade, special technologies are used to achieve the targets set out above. These include high-precision, dust-protected, and easily adjustable saw blade guides. Furthermore, it is important to achieve high saw blade speeds of over 4,000 m/min. Intelligent blade tensioning plays as well an essential role: Saw blades are automatically loaded with the calculated clamping pressure by specifying the desired saw blade tension on the control panel. The saw blade is positioned to the desired cutting height with a positioning tolerance of +/- 0.05 mm in a highly precise and dynamic way. Also important is precise workpiece fixing with automatically adjustable vacuum zones depending on workpiece size.

Turnkey solutions including material handling

Bandsaw solutions are often used in which the raw blocks are loaded with a special block handling system and the sawn sheets are removed manually. Increasingly often, however, turnkey solutions are required from a single source, where the block feed to the saw takes place automatically via buffer stations. Afterwards, the sawn sheets are automatically removed by a robot or portal handling and sorted if required. The sheets then run e.g., through the cleaning station and on to quality control (weight, dimensions, ultrasonic testing, etc.), are printed and subsequently stacked. Increasingly often the entire manufacturing process is being carried out using a complete production line manufactured from a single source.

Digitising the sawing process – “the Digital Cockpit”

Digitally depicting the sawing process also maximises productivity. Band saw operation is monitored with various apps and supported by subsequent data analysis. This takes place both with the help of real-time data and based on aggregated historical data, which is stored continuously.

The monitoring app records such data as for example axis speeds and current power consumption of drive axes, as well as position data from machine axes and much more. Each data record can be limited with target and actual values – if a value exceeds a predefined limit, a corresponding alarm is generated via the alarm app. Production management can then intervene immediately and analyse the anomaly.

About Heermann Maschinenbau GmbH – HEMA:
HEMA, a company with over 100 years of experience, develops, manufactures, and distributes band sawing systems and cutting solutions for different materials and applications. A particular specialisation of the HEMA portfolio is solutions for cutting lightweight materials, as well as construction and insulation materials. The company supplies band saw and cutting solutions ranging from single machines to complete block processing lines including loading, sawing, trimming, handling, transporting, sanding, etc. The focus is on flexible, high-precision customer-specific solutions. HEMA exports to Europe, the USA and Asia, with an export ratio of over 90%.

HEMA has belonged to the Austrian Wintersteiger Group since January 2022. With Wintersteiger Sägen GmbH in Arnstadt, Thuringia, the development and production of saw blades are carried out within the group. Automation expert VAP-Wintersteiger GmbH in Mettmach, Austria – with over 20 years of experience in the automation of production lines – is also on board. Like Wintersteiger, HEMA is also a specialist, technology and quality leader in a niche sector.

Meet Heermann Maschinenbau GmbH – HEMA at JEC World 2024, hall 6, booth P82.

Composites are produced by bringing together two or more materials such as plastic, carbon fibre, ceramics and glass, to produce properties which cannot be achieved by the individual components alone. They are widely used in aircraft, cars, boats, wind turbine blades and in structures such as bridges because they can be lighter, stronger and more durable than conventional materials. 

Composites play a pivotal role in aircraft manufacturing, for example, by increasing performance and carbon efficiency, whilst providing opportunity to reduce costs.

However, manufacturers need to understand more about composites during their manufacturing stage, as well as how they perform throughout their lifetime. Sensors can provide these insights.

Flat fibre sensors fitting snugly inside composites have the potential to uniquely monitor whether the material is fit for purpose and will keep its strength while it is being used. They may even be able to feed into the manufacturing process to optimise the performance of the component and predict when it is likely to fail.

Dr Christopher Holmes, who is based at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton, is heading up the project.

Richard Day, Professor of Composites Engineering and Pro Vice Chancellor for Research at Wrexham University, who is leading on the Wrexham element of the project, said: “I am delighted to be part of this programme of research which has grown out of an initial short collaboration with the universities of Southampton, Bristol and ourselves. 

“The ability to make and employ fibre optic sensors, which are capable of having directional sensing opens up huge areas of understanding in composites and beyond. 

“For us, it is the ability to measure and control stresses in a microwave environment with a view to manufacturing large lightweight mirrors, which is key and will enable a new direction in our research with high potential impact.”

During the span of the project, the team at ORC will develop the flat fibre sensors in their Zepler cleanrooms – its state-of-the-art multidisciplinary centre for materials and device research in electronics, photonics and nanotechnology – in collaboration with manufacturing at the Bristol Composite Institute, University of Bristol. 

Then researchers at Wrexham University, as well as Nottingham, Warwick and Herefordshire will go on to use the new sensors to develop case studies. aligned with industry partners. 

Wrexham University academics will be utilising the facilities at the Advanced Composite Training and Development Centre, a state-of-the-art laboratory that enables such research.

Dr Holmes added: “The leverage of interdisciplinary expertise is fundamental if we are to successfully revolutionise composite material manufacture. 

“The University of Southampton has fantastic cleanroom capabilities and a strong reputation in pioneering optical fibre fabrication and our colleagues have comprehensive knowledge of composites and their applications. Our joint research on flat fibre sensors could transform the ultimate performance of composite structures.”

The project is being funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). 

Dr. James Wade-Zhu, Senior Materials Engineer, UK Atomic Energy Authority, said: “Silicon carbide composites have the potential to enhance fusion by enabling reactors to operate at higher temperatures for improved thermal efficiency, greatly increasing the commercial viability of fusion energy production. We are pleased to be working closely with the National Composite Centre to address concerns around the scalability, formability, and performance of current SiC/SiC grades, bringing about the generation of new UK IP in the process.” 

SiC/SiCs are damage tolerant materials which exhibit excellent radiation resistance and have operating temperatures of up to 1600  ̊C. They are ideal candidate materials to withstand the extreme environments within a fusion reactor. The materials also exhibit low density, delivering advantages over traditional metallic materials. 

Compared with advanced steel designs, SiC/SiC components used in fusion reactors have the potential to double the electricity generated from every gigawatt of thermal energy produced. This significant increase in efficiency of future fusion reactors could save the UK £billions in reduced energy costs, and by reducing the number of reactors required to meet demand.  

The collaboration between UKAEA and the NCC has resulted in a significant process innovation that reduces the cost of manufacturing to one fifth of what can currently be achieved whilst shortening cycle times. Haste-F also increases design freedom for fusion components by enabling more complex shapes and thicker sections than can be made via current manufacturing methods. These advances will allow engineers to access all the advantages of SiC/SiC at a far lower price point. The NCC is pioneering the industrialisation of UK SiC/SiC design, modelling, manufacturing and technology capabilities that will feed into the fusion industry, making it more scalable, accessible and cost effective. 

Virtudes Rubio, Principal Engineer, National Composites Centre, said. “The National Composites Centre is accelerating net-zero energy generation by developing high value composites for extreme environments such as fusion reactors. This could unlock high-volume, high-performance SiC/SiC to the UK, driving a major transformation in sectors that utilise high-temperature CMCs, such as nuclear, defence, space and aerospace.” 

Fusion energy will play an important role in delivering long term UK energy security, with the STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) programme aiming to construct the first grid-connected reactor by 2040. The NCC is proud that HASTE-F is contributing real-world solutions to make SiC/SiC composites a viable and cost-effective technology in commercial fusion power production. 

The cooperation sees Neste provide renewable Neste RE™, a feedstock for polymers production made 100% from bio-based materials such as waste and residues, to LyondellBasell. LyondellBasell processes the feedstock into CirculenRenew C14 polypropylene with measurable bio-based content as part of the company’s CirculenRenew™ portfolio. The polypropylene is then used by Biofibre to produce natural fiber reinforced plastics granules. In the final step, Naftex extrudes these granules into construction elements such as posts for fences or profiles for terrace deckings. 

Enabling more sustainable construction solutions

By combining bio-based polymers with natural fiber, the partners are enabling the production of construction solutions that have a lower carbon footprint. The construction elements serve as a temporary carbon storage: during their use phase of several years or even decades, they can store the carbon that was previously sequestered from the atmosphere during the growth phase of the biomass used in the construction elements. An LCA study created by GreenSurvey for Biofibre confirms that the amount of carbon removed from the atmosphere by the biomass exceeds supply chain emissions from logistics and manufacturing of the reinforced plastics granules. 

“It is extremely important that the construction sector continues to develop innovative ways to combat climate change. Renewable solutions such as renewable Neste RE feedstock for polymers can play a major role in that. The long use-phase of construction products results in the creation of a carbon storage: Materials can store carbon taken from the atmosphere, serving as temporary buffers in combating climate change,” says Martin Bussmann, Brand Owner Manager at Neste Renewable Polymers and Chemicals. 

“It is part of our company strategy to supply solutions for everyday sustainable living. We are thrilled to see that the construction industry is now increasingly embracing more sustainable solutions,” says Roman J. Schulz, Marketing Manager at LyondellBasell. “Our CirculenRenew products that we used for this project have a measurable renewable-based content which can be determined by C14 analysis. They help to reduce fossil feedstock use as well as greenhouse gas emissions over the product life cycle.” 

“We have been using natural fiber residues from organic farming for quite a long time. The fibers stem from sources in close proximity to our production site and do not compete with food or feed production. With the introduction of our new product line BioSustra based on bio-based polyolefins we can further increase the bio-based content, lower the carbon footprint and thus contribute to the ecological advantages of our material portfolio. These new grades are particularly interesting for products with a long service life as can be found in the building industry,” says Jörg Dörrstein, Managing Director of Biofibre GmbH.

“Since we started to work with the building and construction sector, we have been asked how to further increase the sustainability of products such as profiles or bars. It seems that we had started at quite the right time with the development of lower carbon footprint products since recent inquiries clearly point towards a demand for such products. Today, we are happy to have found a proper solution with Biofibre BioSustra to support our clients to fulfill their corporate goals,” Daniel Koopmann, Managing Director of Naftex.

Applications of lightweight core materials

Honeycomb core materials, based on ara­mid, aluminium or glass fibre, are used in areas such as interiors, winglets, spoilers and many other parts for commercial and military aircraft, helicopters and similar (Figure 1).

Wind turbine blades are becoming ever larger to increase energy efficiency. This places higher demands on lightweight materials. Rotor blade core materials include (recycled) PET, PVC rigid foams and balsa wood (Figure 2).

Rigid foam panels (e.g. PET, PU) and honeycomb structures (e.g. PP) are used in transport vehicles, trains and ships, for components such as interior fittings, side walls, roofs, floors, partitions and sanitary fixtures. Typically, these lightweight core materials are further processed into a sandwich panel structure by reinforcing them with glass or carbon fibres, for example, to increase their stiffness.

Sawing process

Requirements

Through various cost-intensive processes, these lightweight core materials (be they aramid honeycomb, rigid PET foam, PP honeycomb or balsa wood) are initially used to produce a high-value raw block. Throughout the value chain, horizontal sawing is one of the main processes used to produce these end products. To save as much of the high-quality materials as pos­sible during sawing, the focus is on a very thin kerf with a high degree of precision and productivity. The thinner the kerf, the less raw material is lost during sawing. Special horizontal band saw machines and saw blades are used to produce the above-mentioned components, which fulfil these requirements.

When sawing aramid honeycomb with a cutting width of more than 2 m using horizontal band saws, customers achieve kerfs smaller than 1 mm, for example, depending on the workpiece type. To be able to achieve considerable material sav­ings in the long term, every tenth of a mil­limetre of kerf counts. At the same time, tight thickness tolerances of less than ±0.15 mm must be achieved when using extremely thin saw blades (Figure 3).

In addition to thickness tolerances (in the ±0.3 mm range), the resin uptake is also important when using PET rigid foam panels for rotor blades for wind power plants; this in turn depends on the surface quality after sawing. Different ob­jectives –such as optimum surface quality with high productivity and the thinnest possible kerf– place high demands on the sawing process and on the selection of suitable saw blades.

Saw blades and objectives

A range of objectives can be considered in different orders of priority when sawing these lightweight core materials, de­pending on the application and material. Typical objectives for aramid honeycomb include a high degree of precision in conjunction with very low thickness tol­erances of just ±0.05 mm. Next comes the requirement for maximum productivity with feed rates of up to 15 m/min for PET rigid foam. Further demands placed on the sawing process include a defined sur­face quality – e.g. minimum fibres in ara­mid honeycomb, prevention of scratches and optimised resin uptake in PET and balsa wood. Thanks to high-precision cutting technologies, material can also be saved by avoiding a trim cut after each saw blade change. High machine availability resulting from less saw blade changes, longer saw blade lifetimes and repeatable cutting results are also essential.

Using suitable saw blades with the appropriate cutting parameters plays a crucial role to achieve these objectives. A large range of different process options makes it easier to optimise these targets according to the application and priority.

Suitable saw blades for the respective applications are tested in HEMA’s test centre in collaboration with the customer. Hereby, a variety of saw blades are used, from extremely thin ones (e.g. 0.5 mm thickness) to strong blades (e.g. 1.1 mm thickness and widths up to 34 mm). The type of saw blades varies as well: hard­ened teeth, bi-metal, stellite-tipped or carbide-tipped teeth, to name just a few.

In addition to using the right saw blade, special technologies are needed to achieve the targets set out above. These include high-precision, dust-protected, easily-adjustable saw blade guides. Fur­thermore, it is important to achieve high saw blade speeds of over 4,000 m/min.

Intelligent blade tensioning plays an essential role as well. The saw blades are automatically loaded with the calculated tension by specifying the desired saw blade tension on the control panel. The saw blade is positioned to the desired cutting height with a positioning toler­ance of ±0.05 mm, in a highly precise and dynamic way. Also important is precise workpiece fixing with automatically-adjustable vacuum zones depending on the workpiece size.

Turnkey solutions including material handling

In commonly-used band saw solutions, the raw blocks are loaded with a special block handling system, and the sawn sheets are removed manually.

However, turnkey solutions are increasing­ly often required from a single source. The block feed to the saw takes place automat­ically via buffer stations. Then, the sawn sheets are automatically removed by a robot or portal handling system and sorted if required (Figure 4, previous page). The sheets typically run through the cleaning station and onto quality control (weight, dimensions, ultrasonic testing, etc.), then they are printed and stacked. Increasingly often, the entire manufacturing process is implemented using a complete production line manufactured from a single source.

The digital cockpit

Digitally depicting the sawing process maximises productivity. The band saw op­eration is monitored with various apps and supported by subsequent data analysis.

This takes place both with the help of real-time data and based on aggregated his­torical data, which is stored continuously.

The monitoring app records data such as, for example, the axis speeds and current power consumption of the drive axes, as well as position data from the machine axes and much more. Each data record can be limited with target and actual values. If a value exceeds a predefined limit, a corresponding alarm is generated via the alarm application. Production management can then intervene immedi­ately and analyse the anomaly.

A deep understanding of the cutting process for each application enables the user to consciously set the appropriate parameters to achieve the desired results (Figure 5). Machine builders strive to offer their customers the widest possible process window to achieve the required objectives, while still tolerating deviations from the parameters set by the operator.

FOCUS : Heermann Maschinenbau GmbH (HEMA)
HEMA, a company with over 100 years of experience, develops, manufactures and distributes band sawing systems and cutting solutions for different materials and applications. A particular specialisation of its portfolio is cutting solutions for lightweight materials, as well as construction and insulation materials. The company supplies band saw and cutting solutions ranging from single machines to complete block pro­cessing lines including loading, sawing, trimming, handling, transporting, sanding, etc. focusing on flexible, high-precision customer-specific solutions. HEMA exports to Europe, the U.S. and Asia, with an export ratio of over 90%. HEMA has belonged to the Austrian Wintersteiger Group since January 2022. The development and production of saw blades are carried out within the group together with Wintersteiger Sägen GmbH in Arnstadt (Thuringia). Automation expert VAP-Wintersteiger GmbH in Mettmach, Austria –with over 20 years of experience in the automation of production lines– is also on board. Like Wintersteiger, HEMA is a special­ist, technology and quality leader in a niche sector.

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While most desktop printers use filament to print, most industrial 3D printers use plastic pellets to feed their print heads. In this article Maarten Logtenberg, CEAD’s CTO and co-founder, sheds light on the advantages of using pellets in industrial 3D printing.

Discover more videos on JEC Composites Web TV.

Pellets for industrial 3D printing explained

Let’s dive into the mechanics of pellet printing first: Pellets embark on a journey from the dryer to the robot extruder, where they are carefully melted. Equipped with multiple precision-controlled heat zones, the extruder melts the pellet material into a liquid substance.

Controlling the temperature to the specific material allows the CEAD to achieve an optimal flow rate, ensuring the best possible layer adhesion as well as improved mechanical properties.”

The differences between 3D printing with pellets and filament

At CEAD they are pellet-printing-enthusiasts. The following differences between pellets and filament for industrial 3D printing highlight why they are big fans of this extrusion method.

1. Increasing industrial 3D printing speed

High output processes are crucial in the industrial adoption of 3D printing. The use of a pellet extruder increases the maximum output per hour, compared to filament based 3D printers. This innovation proves to be a game-changer, making 3D printing not only feasible but highly efficient for large-scale industrial applications.

2. Cost efficiency by a shorter material production process

The pellet extruder not only accelerates the speed of the printing process but also brings substantial cost savings. One fundamental difference between filament and pellet material can be found in the creation of filament, which use pellets as a base material.

Since pellets are melted into filament, the production of filament thus requires one more step. This additional step means that the production of filament is more expensive as opposed to pellet material, making pellet extruders a more economically viable choice.

3. Wide range of thermoplastic materials

CEAD’s robot extruders are designed to handle almost any thermoplastic material. From Polypropylene to high-end options like PEEK, the pellet extruder adapts to the specific needs of your industrial projects. This versatility ensures that CEAD can cater to diverse applications, offering flexibility and customization in material choices.

4. The reinforcement of fibers

An additional characteristic of pellet based 3D printing is the possibility to introduce fibers into the pellets. These fibers play a dual role. First, they minimize warping during the printing process, ensuring the structural integrity of the final product.

Additionally, and perhaps more significantly, they enhance the strength of the printed part. This capability opens doors to utilizing thermoplastic materials in high-end applications, such as autoclave tooling.

CEAD’s robot extruders are equipped with a nitrated barrel, which offers resistance against abrasive materials. This allows processing of virtually all short-fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites. Processing of commodity materials, biobased and high-end materials filles with wood-, glass and carbon fibers, make the extruders widely applicable to several industries.

Meet CEAD’s family of robot extruders

The different models of CEAD’s family of robot extruders can be mounted on robotic arms or gantry-systems. They were originally developed for their robot-based system called the Flexbot, which was officially launched in 2019. However, CEAD extruders can be easily integrated onto existing robot or gantry systems too.

On this page you can find more information on the different models from the robot extruder series. For more information download the robot extruder brochure, download a 3D file of the extruders.

Meet CEAD at JEC World 2024, hall 5, booth Q58, to observe live 3D printing with the Flexbot, the ATLAM, several use cases and to discuss your business case.

With the high demand for Airline pilots, the Elixir Aircraft will be integrated into Sierra Charlie’s popular Aviator Career Program. The program is designed and focused on training the very best pilots, taking students with no past flying experience through all certifications and ratings. However, while other programs focus on speed and rushing students through a nonstandard curriculum, Sierra Charlie’s Aviator Program follows a structured syllabus that considers different learning styles.

“Like Elixir Aircraft, we pride ourselves on innovation and safety, and being ahead of the curve. This means providing our students with best and safest tools out there to ensure the highest quality education and training. The 4th generation Elixir is definitely one of these tools,” says Scott Campbell owner of Sierra Charlie.

“The simplicity, yet strength of the airplane like the components built with the OneShot technology is a game changer. Less than 1000 references in the whole plane and half a day 100hr maintenance checks means my Elixirs will be flying a lot. And my students already fly a lot!” adds Scott Campbell.

“Speaking with Sierra Charlie, it’s clear both our businesses are focused on commercial and industrial development. We know the demand for the global aviation market, training aircraft and pilot shortage. We aim to work together to do whatever we need to do to meet that demand,” states Arthur Leopold Leger, CEO of Elixir Aircraft.

Mike Tonkin, Elixir’s Head of Worldwide Sales explains “Sierra Charlie’s order comes off the back of recent Elixir orders by several large flight training organizations around the world including the Airbus Flight Academy and the Mermoz Academy. There are more orders to come and our new 12,000m² factory at La Rochelle airport and an assembly facility in Florida, USA is a key part of this growth.”

“Knowing Scott [Campbell] and his team for years and their professionalism when it comes to flight training, we are thrilled about their large fleet order. It will have a positive impact on their students, but also help feed the US part 121 and 135 operators. It’s full throttle for Elixir in America.” says Dr Scott Firsing, Elixir Aircraft’s North America Sales and Business Development Director.

The Elixir 912iS was originally certified Part 23 by EASA in early 2020. FAA certification is pending expected in the near future.

About the Elixir Aircraft 100HP:
The Elixir 100HP is the latest in safety, economy, and technology. Elixir Aircraft offers an aircraft that covers all the needs of a modern flight school while reducing carbon emissions by nearly 70% compared to other old generation aircraft. The standard flight training organization configuration includes a full Garmin avionics suite and are built to withstand the rigors of flight training. Standard safety equipment include: spin resistance; ballistic parachute, AoA indicator; double slotted electric flaps; explosion resistance fuel tank and Reinforced oleo-pneumatic landing gear and combined nose wheel, wide track and low center of gravity minimize bounced landings associated with loss of control accidents and runway excursions. The 912iS is powered by the low noise 100 hp Rotax offers with a fuel consumption of around three gallons per hour.

The system primarily consists of six stations. The unwinding station prepares the material that is to be consolidated on rolls. This means that six layers of material can be pressed into one organic sheet. If necessary, the number of laminate layers can also be increased.

A feed table ensures the individual layers are aligned correctly and the current material usage is always calculated on the control side using incremental length measurement.

Before the actual consolidation, the material is heated in a pre-press to approximately 100°C and pre-compressed with a press capacity of 3 kN. This makes it possible to also process awkwardly shaped non-woven fabric in the machine.

The material is pulled semi-continuously through the press together with the separating sheets by the feeder arranged behind the press. This achieves theoretical speeds of 200mm/s. Depending on the number and thickness of the layers, up to 1.7m of laminate can be produced per minute.

The core of the machine is the heating-cooling press with a press capacity of 2,000 kN, which is fitted with a synchronized hydraulic system. This is constructed with four press cylinders with power and location control. In addition to the very high plane-parallelism of +/- 0.02mm, a special feature of the design is the option of deliberately placing the heating plates in a sloping position (1.5mm/1.2m). Furthermore, the heating plates can be adjusted to six individual positions over a length of 1,200mm and thermally separated temperature zones (up to 451°C) have been installed. As a result, material-specific heating and cooling curves can be run without any problems to form the melt front in the direction of manufacture. A thickness measuring device is used for quality control purposes, which determines the precise thickness of the pressed semi-finished product at four measuring points using a laser sensor.

The final station of the machine is the cutting station, which cuts the endless material into defined pieces. Alternatively, the material can also be run with winders on a roll. All the stations are connected to each other on the control side and provide a fully automated process.

The machine, which is located at the Textile Research Institute in Chemnitz, Saxony, can process glass fibres, carbon fibres, aramid fibres, natural fibres, as well as PP, PA, PES, PPS, PEEK, PEI… or also hybrid non-woven fabrics (reinforcement fibres + thermoplastic fibres). Please contact STFI or RUCKS if you are interested in press trials.

In addition to the CCM system described above, RUCKS has supplied many CCM system over the last years. The newest CCM system is assembled in Japan right now. It has a production width of 1.3m. Concepts for systems with production width of 1.5m are ready to be build.

Meet RUCKS Maschinenbau GmbH at JEC World 2023, hall 5 – D79.

The increased use of glass fibres has led to concerns over how they are disposed of as waste. The tonnes of composite materials waste containing valuable glass fibres need to be recycled cost-effectively and with a minimal environmental impact to allow for circularity, if the sector is to meet net zero ambitions.

Much of this waste material globally is currently going to landfill or being incinerated. The EMPHASIZING project will address this environmental issue by developing a viable value chain to recycle and exploit these waste materials for future use within the automotive sector.

The project will assess, process and analyse materials from wind turbine blades, as well as automotive and marine parts to create roadmaps for recycling. The EMPHASIZING consortium, of which Longworth is a member, will work to demonstrate the concept of a circular economy for fabricating automotive end products from upcycled glass fibre materials. This upcycling will include a technical step change from established processes such as pyrolysis and solvolysis in the form of emerging technology DEECOM®, a thermo-cyclic form of pressolysis to enable the high-yield reclamation of high-quality, clean, reusable fibres, that are free from residues and have a retained length and properties akin to virgin materials. The recovered, clean fibres will then be upcycled through re-sizing, giving them increased performance properties much higher than glass but at a similar cost. It’s hoped that through finding several use cases for this material, the industry will have access to a brand new, advanced material, on-shored and readily available, at a low cost.

The new products will feed into plans for a sustainable future for composites use as they look to become a ‘go-to’ material for the automotive industry with a transition through a new generation of vehicles with fewer metallic parts.

The EMPHASIZING solution will include the introduction of low-cost, high-quality and high yield reclaimed fibres for production to support the vision for this new generation of vehicles with increased composite use from 2030 and beyond.

EMPHASIZING, which was initially launched on Nov 11, 2022 is led by Longworth, with TWI joining fellow project partners EMS Chemie, Ford, Gestamp UK, Gen2Plank and Brunel University London Composites Centre.

You can follow EMPHASIZING progress through to 2024 on lead partner, Longworth’s Linkedin page.

Want to know more about the Deecom® fibre recycling process ?
Subscribe now and read the latest JEC Composites Magazine N°150 which includes a feature on the Deecom® fibre recycling process.

For more information on DEECOM® and pressolysis as a circular composites solution, visit the Cygnet Texkimp stand at JEC World 2023, hall 5, booth M72.

With a focus on hydrolysis lignin valorization, the Synergy Horizon group of companies transforms lignin, a biopolymer that is often discarded as a by-product of the bioethanol industry, into valuable products for various applications. Their strong competencies involve lignin purification, its chemical modification and functionalization. They offer lignin-derived products for various applications, such as oil and gas extraction, battery production, water treatment, animal feed and more.

From waste product to filler

The group member, Synergy Horizon Poland Sp. z o.o., has also been recently developing a process at its Polish site in Poznan for the production of free-flowing lignin powder that can be metered into the extruder as a filler. Lignin is a 100% natural substance that is second to cellulose as the most abundant organic material on Earth. Lignin can be extracted from lignocellulosic biomass by various methods. One of these methods is the hydrolysis of biomass for bioethanol production, which generates hydrolysis lignin as a byproduct. Hydrolysis lignins have unique properties that make them stand out from other types of lignin.

Around 50 million tons of lignin, including hydrolysis lignin, are produced annually worldwide as a waste product from wood processing in the paper and bioethanol industries, 98% of which is incinerated. Various research projects have already dealt with the valuable renewable bioresource, but its use as a filler in a biopolymer matrix is so far unique. “However, processing hydrolysis lignin is not an easy task,” knows Alexander Gonchar, the head of research and development at Synergy Horizon, and is proud of the fact that, thanks to intensive development work, his company now operates a commercial production line for manufacturing lignin powder.

Successful process optimization: KraussMaffei integrates up to 30% lignin into PLA matrix

KraussMaffei has demonstrated the incorporation of the natural raw material into the PLA matrix in its newly established technical center at the Laatzen site. Both the laboratory extruder, a ZE Blue Power 28, and the small ZE Blue Power 42 production compounder succeeded in incorporating up to 30% lignin. “We have specially adapted the screw configuration to the lignin with heavy-sensitive mixing elements, operate at a low temperature of 160°C maximum, and use both a 6 D-long filling zone and side degassing,” Lars Darnedde gives an insight into the process configuration. The ZE BluePower generation with its optimum Da/di of 1.65 offers all these possibilities “out of the box” and is thus perfectly suited for processing these shear- and temperature-sensitive polymers.

The fact that both the process arrangement of the compounding extruder and the preparation of the lignin at Synergy Horizon are perfect has also been confirmed by extensive mechanical tests. Compared to pure PLA, the lignin reinforcement enables flexural and tensile modulus to be increased by around 30%. It could be useful in packaging applications where the material needs to be stiff enough to hold its shape under load.

Another advantage is that lignin adds sufficient antioxidant capacity that can help particularly in food packaging application to prevent oxidation of the food and maintain its quality and safety by inhibiting the radical oxidation and preventing the formation of off-flavors, odors, or toxic compounds. Moreover, the biocompound with lignin has no odor unlike other type of lignin, which makes it more suitable for food packaging. A novel bicompound that exhibits antioxidant properties could be applied to biodegradable plastics for agricultural purposes, such as mulch films, to protect them from oxidative degradation.

Unlike pure PLA, which has limited biodegradability due to its dependence on specific enzymes and industrial conditions, PLA biocompounds containing lignin exhibit enhanced biodegradation properties with biodegradation rate more than 90% in 99 days.

The ISCC PLUS, International Sustainability & Carbon Certification’s (ISCC) a voluntary certification program, guarantees that the raw materials used are sourced from biomass or recycled materials. It also ensures that there is complete traceability at all stages of the manufacturing process of a product. The mass balance approach tracks the amount and sustainability characteristics of circular and bio-based materials used in the value chain and it is based on verifiable record. This scheme is open to several sectors such as the food, feed, chemicals, plastics, packaging and textile industries.

Toray Carbon Fibers Europe will start manufacturing carbon fibre derived from biomass and recycled raw materials by the end of 2023⁵. In addition, Toray’s Ehime Plant in Japan aims to obtain ISCC PLUS certification by March 2024 and begin producing fibre by the close of that year. In the USA, the carbon fibre facility of Toray Composite Materials America, Inc. in Decatur, Alabama, also plans to obtain this certification in 2024. With these three locations obtaining certification, the Toray Group intends to manufacture carbon fibre using biomass or recycled raw materials at plants in Japan, the United States, and Europe, ensuring stable supplies to customers around the globe.

Toray has already received requests from customers similarly committed to carbon neutrality. From the end of 2023, Toray will offer this carbon fibre for industrial applications such as automobiles and handheld devices where demand for materials to create sustainable products is particularly high. At a later date, other applications, such as aviation and sports, will also be targeted.

This effort aligns with the Toray Group’s carbon fibre composites business roadmap to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Under Project AP-G 2025, its medium-term management program, Toray is actively contributing to the development of a more sustainable economy by quantifying the LCA improvements of customer products, reducing the LCIs of carbon fibre, prepreg, and other offerings, and using and recycling bio-based materials as part of its new materials ecosystem.

Toray aims to build a new materials ecosystem that harnesses natural raw materials and returns them to nature in an eco-friendly state. For carbon fibre, the ecosystem will be built using biomass and recycled raw materials to manufacture carbon fibre. This fibre will be made into a composite material and, finally, an end product. At the end of the product’s life cycle, continuous carbon fibre will be repurposed for the use as discontinuous fibre in other products. The last stage of the carbon fibre’s life cycle will be its recycling for water treatment or soil improvement.

Note:
1) ISCC PLUS certification allows us to declare that our products are made from biomass or recycled raw materials in a mass balance system. Such declaration is impossible without certification.
2) A mass balance approach is one in which raw materials with certain characteristics (an example being biomass-derived) are mixed with other raw materials (such as petroleum-derived ones) in the processing and distribution process, from raw materials through to finished products. Characteristics are assigned to part of a product in line with the input proportions of raw materials with those characteristics.
3) Life Cycle Inventory is an analytical technique to collect, verify, and compile input and output data on raw material usage, resource consumption, environmentally hazardous substance emissions, and waste at each stage of a life cycle.
4) Life Cycle Assessments quantitatively assess resource inputs, environmental impacts, and their effects on the planet and ecosystems across the life cycles of products.
5) The Lacq and Abidos plants of Toray Carbon Fibers Europe declared their compliance with ISCC PLUS requirements in line with prevailing ISCC rules.

The Scorpion AFP4.0 can work with thermoplastic, thermoset, dry fiber, & towpreg.

This is AFP4.0 in a box that includes:

• FANUC M-900iB/700 Robot
• 4 lane 1/4″ AFP head
• Vacuum Flat Charge Table (2.5m x 3m capacity)
• Laser safety enclosure
• Operator Interface

Modular AFP Head Features:

• 4 lane, 1/4″ tow baseline AFP
• 2 segment “eye-safe” Laser heat or 4 segment high output Laser heat
• Servo Creel

Process Capabilities:

• Initial Feed: 4000″/min (100m/min)
• Re-feed: 3000″/min (75m/min)
• Cut: 3000″/min (75m/min)
• Min piece: 4″ < l < 5.5″ @1200″/min (30m/min)
• Thermoplastic, Thermoset, Dry Fiber, & TowPreg

The ISCC PLUS, International Sustainability & Carbon Certification’s (ISCC) a voluntary certification program, guarantees that the raw materials used are sourced from biomass or recycled materials. It also ensures that there is complete traceability at all stages of the manufacturing process of a product. The mass balance approach tracks the amount and sustainability characteristics of circular and bio-based materials used in the value chain and it is based on verifiable record. This scheme is open to several sectors such as the food, feed, chemicals, plastics, packaging and textile industries.

Toray Carbon Fibers Europe will start manufacturing carbon fibre derived from biomass and recycled raw materials by the end of 2023⁵. In addition, Toray’s Ehime Plant in Japan aims to obtain ISCC PLUS certification by March 2024 and begin producing fibre by the close of that year. In the USA, the carbon fibre facility of Toray Composite Materials America, Inc. in Decatur, Alabama, also plans to obtain this certification in 2024. With these three locations obtaining certification, the Toray Group intends to manufacture carbon fibre using biomass or recycled raw materials at plants in Japan, the United States, and Europe, ensuring stable supplies to customers around the globe.

Toray has already received requests from customers similarly committed to carbon neutrality. From the end of 2023, Toray will offer this carbon fibre for industrial applications such as automobiles and handheld devices where demand for materials to create sustainable products is particularly high. At a later date, other applications, such as aviation and sports, will also be targeted.

This effort aligns with the Toray Group’s carbon fibre composites business roadmap to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Under Project AP-G 2025, its medium-term management program, Toray is actively contributing to the development of a more sustainable economy by quantifying the LCA improvements of customer products, reducing the LCIs of carbon fibre, prepreg, and other offerings, and using and recycling bio-based materials as part of its new materials ecosystem.

Toray aims to build a new materials ecosystem that harnesses natural raw materials and returns them to nature in an eco-friendly state. For carbon fibre, the ecosystem will be built using biomass and recycled raw materials to manufacture carbon fibre. This fibre will be made into a composite material and, finally, an end product. At the end of the product’s life cycle, continuous carbon fibre will be repurposed for the use as discontinuous fibre in other products. The last stage of the carbon fibre’s life cycle will be its recycling for water treatment or soil improvement.

Note:
1) ISCC PLUS certification allows us to declare that our products are made from biomass or recycled raw materials in a mass balance system. Such declaration is impossible without certification.
2) A mass balance approach is one in which raw materials with certain characteristics (an example being biomass-derived) are mixed with other raw materials (such as petroleum-derived ones) in the processing and distribution process, from raw materials through to finished products. Characteristics are assigned to part of a product in line with the input proportions of raw materials with those characteristics.
3) Life Cycle Inventory is an analytical technique to collect, verify, and compile input and output data on raw material usage, resource consumption, environmentally hazardous substance emissions, and waste at each stage of a life cycle.
4) Life Cycle Assessments quantitatively assess resource inputs, environmental impacts, and their effects on the planet and ecosystems across the life cycles of products.
5) The Lacq and Abidos plants of Toray Carbon Fibers Europe declared their compliance with ISCC PLUS requirements in line with prevailing ISCC rules.

In 2021, however, HORIZN STUDIOS was looking to really revolutionise luggage design. Despite the challenges of the global pandemic, the company intended to create the world’s most sustainable luxury luggage. Embracing a philosophy of lightweight, high-performance, and sustainable materials, HORIZN STUDIOS sought out a partner that would be able to simultaneously fulfil these demanding criteria.

Natural fibre composite technologies
Already proven in the unrelenting world of motorsport and the equally challenging arena of ultra-high-end furniture, Bcomp’s innovative ampliTex™ and powerRibs™ are ground-breaking carbon-neutral composite reinforcements made entirely from flax fibre.

Cultivated across Europe, flax is an indigenous plant that has been part of the agricultural industry for centuries. With low water and nutrient requirements and little need for pesticides and fertilisers, it is a popular rotational crop with excellent utility – useful for feed, making flax oil, and its fibres can be used in textiles.

ampliTex™ and powerRibs™ make the most of flax’s inherent mechanical properties, creating composite parts with high stiffness, resistance to breakage, torsion, and compression – perfect to form the shell of tough and sturdy luggage. Using appropriate care and processes, Bcomp’s materials also offer a flawless surface finish, suitable for luxury product applications.

Most importantly, ampliTex™ and powerRibs™ are some of the most sustainable composite technologies available today, particularly in the high-performance category. Analysis of past projects has shown that Bcomp’s technologies can provide a material emission reduction of 90% when compared to its most commonly used equivalent, carbon fibre. Overall, they offer an outstanding 80-85% cradle-to-gate emission reduction, while retaining many of the performance benefits.
This was perfect for HORIZN STUDIOS’s new Circle One range.

A revolutionary new luggage solution
Circle One is HORIZN STUDIOS’s European-made sustainable luggage range, harnessing ampliTex™ in its BioX technology, a patented hard-shell luggage innovation. With a much lower carbon footprint than carbon fibre or aluminium – including energy consumption in manufacture and use of a bio-based resin – BioX is one of the most sustainable hardcase luggage materials on the market. Thanks to ampliTex™, BioX is not only a more sustainable material, but it even allows to eliminate some petroleum-based materials that would normally be used from the manufacturing process.

Unlike other luggage materials that would be sent to landfill at the end of their useful life, the Circle One range has various end-of-life recycling options thanks to Bcomp’s flax fibre composite technologies. ampliTex™ also opens up the possibility of repair, rather than replace, something of great interest to the HORIZN STUDIOS team.

With the circular economy and sustainable products becoming an increasingly important part of consumer purchasing decisions and lifestyle, the use of innovative natural composites is the perfect way to integrate carbon-neutral, sustainable materials. With excellent stiffness, low weight, and the possibility of stunning surface finishes and designs, Bcomp’s technologies offer a sustainable alternative to manufacturing conventional luxury and performance products.

About 1.2 tonnes of PureGRAPH® 50 is being used in the trial, testing multiple dispersion methods and dosage rates to determine the most effective and beneficial application process. The graphene will first be formulated into a grinding aid and then introduced into the cement grinding mill feed. Dispersion into the cement production line will occur over a 24-hour period using traditional grinding aid dosage lines, with minimal operational or mechanical change required to the existing plant. Cement produced will be validated by Breedon’s Quality team to assess its performance enhancement.

Results from the trial will be used to build on data obtained from smaller scale trials previously conducted at an accredited concrete processing laboratory in the United Kingdom. These small-scale trials have generated positive results.

Recent work carried out by the University of Manchester confirmed the potential for PureGRAPH® enhanced cement to reduce CO₂ emissions and deliver a range of mechanical benefits in concrete-based systems, at very low graphene loading levels.

The graphene enhanced cement produced through the trial will be supplied to leading British construction and regeneration group Morgan Sindall Construction, which will use it in real world construction demonstrations.

The company is renowned for its cutting-edge approach to carbon reduction, sustainable material use and building methods in the construction sector.

First Graphene Managing Director and CEO Michael Bell said: “This industry collaboration led by First Graphene is an example of world leading research and a significant jump in trial size to demonstrate the value of graphene in greening the cement and concrete industries.

“To our knowledge the volume of graphene-enhanced cement being produced is among the biggest ever trialed globally.

“We’re aiming to determine a simple, low-cost method of introducing graphene to industrial scale cement production to drive the sustainability and decarbonisation of one of the highest emitting industries on the planet.

“Having involvement from leading manufacturer Breedon and sustainability innovator Morgan Sindall adopting this cement into real-world applications gives the trial extreme credibility, showcasing the potential of green cement products powered by First Graphene’s PureGRAPH® .”

Breedon Cement Managing Director Jude Lagan said: “We are truly excited to be part of this consortium led by First Graphene. The role graphene can play in helping to decarbonise the cement industry could be significant, and we are keen to contribute to this process by facilitating what is set to be one of the largest global trials of this kind at our Hope Cement plant in Derbyshire.

“The construction industry can play an essential role in the creation of a sustainable built environment, as long as we continue to embrace innovation.

“We look forward to working with Morgan Sindall and the University of Manchester to showcase some brilliant real-world applications for this innovative graphene product.”

About First Graphene Ltd:
First Graphene Limited is focused on the development of advanced materials to help industry improve. The Company is a leading supplier of graphitic materials and product formulations with a specific commercial focus on large, high-growth global markets including cement and concrete; composites and plastics; coatings, adhesives, silicones and elastomers (CASE); and energy storage applications.

One of the key outcomes these advanced materials offer is the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, whether directly through a reduction in output of these harmful greenhouse gases or lower energy usage requirements in manufacturing, or indirectly due to enhanced performance characteristics and extending the usable life of products.

First Graphene has a robust manufacturing platform based on captive and abundant supply of high-purity raw materials, and readily scalable technologies to meet growing market demand. As well as being the world’s leading supplier of its own high performance PureGRAPH® graphene product range, the Company works with multiple industry partners around the world as a supplier of graphitic materials and partner to research, develop, test and facilitate the commercial marketing of a wide range of sector-specific chemical solutions.

Due to material properties such as low density, compressibility or demanding mixing ratios, so-called premixed-frozen (PMF) and 2-component cartridges (injection and barrier style) have established themselves in practice. However, in most cases the volumes are predefined, such as 180 ml cartridges, but are not suitable for the application and are only partially used due to the limited processing time. In addition to the costly waste of material, environmentally conscious action is becoming increasingly important for consumers and it is a fundamental goal to reduce material waste in general.

Discover more videos on JEC Composites Web TV.

Demand-driven mixing through ViscoTec’s cartridge filling stations
In view of these market requirements, a demand-driven filling system was presented during the live demonstration. The visitors were able to individually fill cartridges with the polysulfide “Naftoseal MC-780B-2” provided by Chemetall. The participants were impressed with the easy operation of the unit as well as the technology. After all, precise and gentle filling is a basic requirement for meeting the high demands of the aerospace industry. Without influencing the complex overall processes, ViscoTec cartridge filling stations can make a significant contribution to cost reduction through more efficient material supply.

Unique combination: Static-dynamic mixing and the endless piston principle
The heart of the filling systems is the 2-component dispenser vipro-DUOMIX, which was released in 2018. The static-dynamic mixer is perfectly suited for compressible, twocomponent materials with very different viscosities, extreme mixing ratios and highpressure sensitivity. Volumetric dispensing at low pressure is the key to success. Like all products in the ViscoTec portfolio, the vipro-DUOMIX also relies on the technology of the endless piston and offers the proven high quality.

Depending on the production volume: Scalable complete solutions thanks to modular design
Each ViscoTec cartridge filling system consists of two material emptying systems and a 2-component dispenser. Depending on the production volume and the available container sizes of the material used, these different standard solutions are easily scalable, always oriented to the actual consumption. If at a later date a fully automated material application is required, the existing equipment can easily be integrated into a holistic solution.

“With our cartridge filling systems, we continue to offer our customers the advantages of flexible material application from cartridges, but reduce material waste to a minimum, while at the same time obtaining material from large containers,” summarizes Sales Manager Franz Kamhuber. Complicated mixing and logistically complicated cooling chains are now a thing of the past, which not only saves energy but also reduces environmental pollution.

In addition to the demonstration, the focus was also on face-to-face dialogue with users.
After all, close collaboration with the customer and the fulfilment of individual requirements
have always been part of the ViscoTec philosophy. The scalable system concept, as well as the possibility of adaptation to automated sealant application, was particularly well received by the visitors to the event. However, the typical characteristics of the technology used were also impressive: “As no valves are used,
another source of error is eliminated. Valves cause fluctuating mixing ratios in production operations by pulsing the feed and dispensing flow,” says an aerospace specialist from Chemetall.

Meet ViscoTec at JEC World 2023, hall 5, P84.

Climate Impulse plans to complete in 2028 the first non-stop round-the-world-flight in a green hydrogen powered airplane, with science company Syensqo as main partner. After 2 years of research, development and design supported by Airbus, Daher, Capgemini and with the participation of Ariane Group, the construction of the aircraft has begun and will last two years under the direction of Raphaël Dinelli, composite engineer and navigator. Following another two years of testing, this unique aircraft will attempt to fly non-stop all around the Equator with pilots Bertrand Piccard and Raphaël Dinelli. A journey that will push the boundaries of what is possible and aims to restore confidence in scientific solutions for the common good.

More than a flight, Climate Impulse is an environmental flagship aiming to play its part in revolutionizing the aviation sector and beyond, showing the way to global sustainability through innovative solutions in areas traditionally considered difficult to decarbonize.

Climate Impulse represents a technological breakthrough. Beside the production of green hydrogen from renewable energies, and its use through fuel cells to feed electric motors, the major challenge lies in maintaining liquid hydrogen at -253°C during an estimated nine days of flight. This will require revolutionary innovations in the creation of adapted thermal tanks, opening new horizons in aviation technology. The collaboration with Syensqo will enable Climate Impulse to develop these cutting-edge systems.

Climate Impulse, a new project in a lineage of sustainability exploration

The latest adventure of Bertrand Piccard was Solar Impulse, the unprecedented round-the-world flight in a solar-powered airplane. An achievement directly in line with those of his grandfather Auguste, who invented the pressurized capsule to explore the stratosphere, and his father Jacques, who took his Bathyscaphe to the bottom of the Mariana trench, both with an environmental purpose.

Solar Impulse was a symbol based on the intuition that renewable energies and cleantech solutions could achieve environmental objectives considered to be impossible. Since then, more than 1500 efficient solutions have been identified and labeled by the Solar Impulse Foundation, certifying their environmental benefit and economic viability. 

Born of this heritage and taking it further, Climate Impulse wants to showcase concrete technologies that can revolutionize the aviation industry, and the mobility sector in general.

“In this world full of eco-anxiety, we need to restore hope and stimulate action by demonstrating disruptive solutions that lead to sustainable progress. More than flying around the world with a hydrogen airplane, Climate Impulse will explore new ways of thinking and acting to promote a better quality of life,” says Bertrand Piccard. “Efficient solutions will unite people from citizens and environmental activists to political and business leaders, shifting the narrative from sacrifice and fear to enthusiasm and action”. 

A challenge made possible by Syensqo’s expertise and technological know-how

Syensqo (formerly part of Solvay) was the first and main technological partner to team up with Bertrand Piccard nearly 20 years ago with the Solar Impulse flight. This time again, Syensqo will put its extensive expertise and innovation power at the service of the adventure by enabling the manufacture of the plane with tailor made materials.

Syensqo’s composite materials, films and adhesives will be crucial to the manufacturing of the entire structure of the hydrogen aircraft, its fuselage to the wings and hydrogen tanks. It will provide lightness, alongside mechanical and thermal properties. When it comes to green hydrogen, the company’s high-performance materials (for Proton Exchange Membranes and binders for electrodes of the fuel cell) will be key enablers to confer exceptionally high-power density and efficiency, also allowing more compact design of the plane. 

“We are thrilled to be part of this ultimate flight, a non-stop zero emission round the world fueled by green hydrogen. Our 13.200 Syensqo’ employees are proud to be part of this human, environmental and scientific adventure, showcasing the power of their sustainable innovations that will drive carbon neutrality for our customers and advance humanity,” says Dr. Ilham Kadri, CEO at Syensqo.

Its creation marks the latest chapter in Cygnet Texkimp’s work to forward the interests of the industry through the development of equipment used in fibre processing, materials and part manufacturing, and recycling.

Organisations can reserve time in the centre to carry out trials to optimise and validate their process design, evaluate materials, and gather evidence to prove their business case or justify investment.

The facility has been designed to complement existing industry support from academic institutions and the UK’s Catapult Network and is intended to help companies develop technologies from TRL (Technology Readiness Level) 5 or 6 to commercial viability and on to full-scale production.

“Our Innovation Centre forms part of our commitment to reinvest in UK capability and to accelerate learning in this area of materials science, so that organisations involved in the development and application of advanced materials can achieve more and do so more quickly,” explains Cygnet Texkimp CEO Luke Vardy.

“In this way we hope to create an asset for the world’s composites and advanced materials industry, and to support the work of the UK’s composites industry, including the Catapult Network and university-led innovation centres, as a world-class destination for composites technology.”

Andy Whitham, Director of Process Development at Cygnet Texkimp, says: “We’ve created an open-access facility with some of the most advanced fibre processing technologies in the world where our partners can come to push the boundaries of innovation further while developing the next generation of advanced materials and parts in a secure way.

“Our principal aims are to support industrialisation of emerging composites manufacturing technologies, take the guesswork out of process qualifications, and reduce the inherent commercial risk associated with investment in large-scale capital equipment by demonstrating the capabilities of our equipment.”

As a commercial engineering firm, Cygnet Texkimp has a 50-strong engineering team including R&D and product specialists, mechanical, electrical, software and design engineers to support the development work taking place in the company’s Innovation Centre.

“The breadth of expertise within our in-house engineering team means we can leverage other technologies to solve a particular problem and are ideally placed to manufacture specific items or equipment needed to demonstrate a process,” says Andy Whitham.

“Having our own team of specialist software engineers, for example, is a valuable asset and means that operating improvements identified within a trial programme can be made quickly and securely to create the most effective tailored solution for each application.”

The centre will allow Cygnet Texkimp to show the full scope of its diverse and growing range of fibre processing equipment in one place.

“As a machine builder and fibre specialist, we’ve developed a full life cycle of fibre processing technologies from handling and manufacturing to end-of-life management, recycling and repurposing. Being able to demonstrate the full extent of this capability under one roof is a pivotal moment for us and for the industries we serve,” says Luke Vardy.

Technologies housed within Cygnet Texkimp’s Innovation Centre will include:

• Direct Melt Thermoplastic Processing Line capable of producing UD, and narrow tape prepregs from standard industrial feedstock.
• Multi-Roll Stack, high-speed, short-footprint, vertically stacked prepreg manufacturing line.
• High-Precision Slitter-Spooler-Rewinder to process UD prepreg slit tapes.
• 9-Axis Robotic Filament Winding system with a range of fibre feed and resin dosing systems capable of high tension and thermoplastic winding
• Multi Axis and 3D Winders providing high-rate deposition for wound parts of varying geometry.
• Automated Filament Winding Cell showcasing Cygnet Texkimp’s work in high-rate manufacturing of composite components.
• Composites Reclaiming & Recycling Solutions including those powered by DEECOM®
• Spread Tape Line for low crimp fabrics
• High-temperature Consolidation Line
• Automation demonstration equipment
• Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV)
• Fibre Unrolling Creels

Cygnet Texkimp will be celebrating the launch of the company’s new Innovation Centre at JEC World 2023 in Paris with a drinks reception on Wednesday 26^th April 12:00 to 14:00 at Hall 5 Stand M72.

Approximately 600 tonnes of graphene enhanced cement was produced at the UK’s largest cement processing facility, operated by Breedon Cement Ltd. Graphene was consistently dosed and dispersed into a cement grinding mill using standard process equipment.

During the production trials, the PureGRAPH® enhanced grinding aid performed adeptly, maintaining a consistent and highly stable feed. The operating conditions remained unchanged during the dispersion of graphene, and the cement produced conformed with Breedon’s strict quality control parameters.
Initial results show up to a 10% increase in early-stage cement compressive strength compared to an equivalent control. The trials were conducted on a CEM II cement, which has a reduced clinker factor compared to CEM I. The lower clinker factor is an enabler to an approximately 15% reduction in CO2 emissions associated with cement production.

These initial results validate the scientific theory underpinning the improvements associated with the use of graphene as a value-adding additive in the cement industry, whilst also demonstrating the viability of producing industrial scale volumes with minimal disruption and costs associated with modifications at a live production facility.

The trial also demonstrates graphene enhanced cement can be supplied using existing infrastructure and facilities and, when used in construction settings, no additional equipment or training is required for the applicators.

The graphene enhanced cement was used to create a temporary wheel washing facility at a major infrastructure project that is being delivered by project partner, Morgan Sindall Infrastructure, on behalf of a UK Government Company.

This provides an optimal and challenging environment to test the strength and permeability of the graphene-enhanced concrete slab, as it will be subject to constant heavy vehicle traffic, high water loadings from washed wheels and high dust loadings from incoming vehicles.

Morgan Sindall will continue to monitor the performance of the installation, providing First Graphene with valuable real-world data in a harsh testing environment.

As announced in June1, the focus of the trials was to validate and showcase the CO2 reduction capabilities and concrete performance of graphene-enhanced cement, in a bid to create stronger and ‘greener’ infrastructure.

Having delivered significant results in the very first trials clearly demonstrates the Company’s R&D capability to produce and supply high quality graphene at a commercial scale and the enormous potential for First Graphene’s PureGRAPH range. This is a significant strategic milestone in commercialising graphene at a large scale.

First Graphene will continue to work closely with Breedon Cement Ltd, Morgan Sindall and the University of Manchester as the next phase of the commercialisation process begins later this year, initially aiming to further refine the addition method and optimise graphene dosing rates.

First Graphene Managing Director and CEO Michael Bell said: “Completion of phase one trials is a significant milestone towards the adoption of graphene-enhanced cement as a tool to help drive emissions down in the construction industry. This initial test of applying PureGRAPH®-enhanced cement at an industrial scale has produced very encouraging and positive results. These results provide a route for the construction industry to meet environmental sustainability targets, and First Graphene is optimistic about the role our product can play in that journey.

We look forward to continuing this collaboration with project partners as we embark on the next phase of trials, which is set to revolutionise the global construction sector.”

Jude Lagan, Breedon Cement Managing Director said: “I am pleased that the trial was safely and efficiently delivered through the great level of collaboration between all partners. We’ve already seen some promising early results and, while there is clearly more to do, it’s a significant step in the right direction as the industry moves towards Net-Zero in 2050.

I am looking forward to continuing further trials to see how we can optimise the use of graphene and help to decarbonise the cement industry, whilst continuing to develop environmental benefits.”

Sarah Reid, Morgan Sindall Infrastructure, Highways team Managing Director said: “We are delighted to be involved in this full-scale production trial from the beginning. The work undertaken provides an opportunity for cement carbon reduction.

Concrete is one of the most common materials we use, and it won’t be one single change that makes it Net Zero, it will be a number of things. Graphene is just one element that will contribute to our responsible business strategy on improving the environment.”

Dr Akilu Yunusa-Kaltungo, from the School of Engineering at the University of Manchester, said: “We were pleased to work with our industrial partners on this project, seeing it through from the laboratory scale to a full-scale demonstrator.

This is a good example of how we can collaborate to transfer our world-class scientific and engineering knowledge to the real world. We look forward to continuing to work with our partners on future projects.”

The ProRate PLUS feeder line features a unique design which allows a very compact, space-saving arrangement. The trapezoidal shape of the ProRate Plus feeders allows up to six feeders to be easily grouped around an extruder inlet within a 1.5 meter [5 ft] radius. The three feeder models PLUS-S, PLUS-M and PLUS-L cover a wide range of throughputs. The ProRate PLUS feeders are capable of handling feed rates from 3.3 up to 4800 dm³/h [0.12 up to 400 ft³/h], depending on the material. Theoretically a feeding system with six ProRate PLUS-L feeders can feed up to 28.8 m³/h [1017 ft³/h] on a footprint of only 7 m² [75 ft²].

ProRate feeders are highly standardized and include a variety of design features to optimize performance and ease of use. Simple access for cleaning and maintenance, even within a cluster, is provided thanks to a patent-pending rail system called “ProClean Rail”. ProClean Rail makes it possible to retract the base unit toward the rear of the feeder and rotate it for access to the feeding section and screw element. This allows for maintenance and cleaning of the feeding unit while keeping the feeder in position. In addition, the bellows and screw use the latest magnet technology for simple but robust mounting. The magnet connections allow these parts to be released without tools while at the same time providing the required holding force for optimal and safe operation. Thanks to the high level of standardization of the feeders, the number of spare parts required for emergency stock is minimal. Many parts are identical for all three models and can be used as exchange parts for all devices.

ProRate PLUS feeders are suitable for use in hazardous locations rated NEC Class II, Div. 2, Group F & G and ATEX 3D/3D (outside/inside).

Accurate weight measurement and reliable control modules for efficient operation

All ProRate PLUS feeders are equipped with P-SFT load cells, featuring reliable Smart Force Transducer weighing technology. They operate under compression and provide accurate, stable and reliable digital weight measurement under a broad range of operating conditions. The load cells supply a direct digital weighing signal and the onboard microcontroller ensures excellent repeatability and stability. P-SFT load cells have a high tolerance to vibration and electrical noise. They feature built-in over and underload protection.

Each feeder comes equipped with its own pre-wired ProRate PLUS PCM control module. The PCM is mounted to the feeder stand, with adjustable height positioning. Each PCM is pre-tested in Coperion K-Tron’s manufacturing facility prior to shipping. There are two models of PCM to choose from: a basic motor control unit (PCM-MD) or an advanced version with integrated user interface and line control functionality (PCM-KD). Within a group of up to eight feeders, one feeder must be equipped with the PCM-KD while the PCM-MD is sufficient for the others.

The PCM-KD comes with all the software the ProRate PLUS feeder will need for continuous applications and supports all three feeder models. Connection between weigh feeders, operator interface and smart I/O is via an industrial network. All motor setup, diagnostics and operator interface functions are integrated into the PCM-KD user interface. The PCM-KD is equipped with a host communication port (Ethernet IP or Profinet).

A variety of service offerings to keep processes running smoothly 

Coperion K-Tron’s dedication to customer satisfaction has also led to the creation of a unique new portfolio of service offerings for the launch of this product line. A variety of Start-up and Service Packages are available for ProRate PLUS feeders to ensure each customer can get exactly the level of service they need. Coperion K-Tron also offers quick and easy remote services for ProRate PLUS. From an online portal to 24-hour phone support and even remote start-up assistance, trained service technicians are available to keep systems running around the globe. In all, the brand new ProRate PLUS feeder line offers a simple, robust and reliable solution for feeding a variety of free-flowing bulk materials in plastics processing applications.

This model is strong enough to spin line up to 0.095-inch and was able to cut through neglected areas easily. It’s not strong enough to handle the thick stuff out, but any of your typical lawn grasses and weeds are no match.

The vibration levels are lower compare to gas trimmers. However, some of the premium residential and professional models reign it in more.

When it comes to runtime, it is possible to trim for just over 28 minutes on the 4.0Ah battery that comes in the kit. That’s running at high speed with 0.095-inch line in the longer cutting position. That’s enough to cover most lawns up to a 1/2-acre. The nice thing is Hart includes is a fast charger that gets you back in the game 3 times faster than the standard 40V charger.

Attachment capable

This trimmer is attachment capable and Hart uses a universal attachment connection. It works with all Hart PowerFit attachments and any other universal attachments you might have.

As an added bonus, the 3-position detent makes it easy to turn the string trimmer 90° and edge without messing with the handle ergonomics.

3-in-1 bump feed head

Hart includes a 3-in-1 trimmer head with this model. The standard head has a reversible cutter that you can set to 13 inches for tighter areas and longer runtime or 15 inches for larger areas and faster cutting.

There’s a second attachment for the head you can swap out that gives you a pair of plastic grass-cutting blades. These have more mass and can get through some of the stalkier grasses better than trimmer line. They’re more likely to damage paint and other soft materials, so be aware of what’s around you when you use them.

Weight and balance

The big deal about switching the shaft to carbon fiber is weight savings.

The bare weight of the trimmer is 8.8 pounds and a 4.0Ah battery brings the total package up to 11.1 pounds. It is a very reasonable weight for the performance level of this trimmer.

With that battery and the brushless motor in the powerhead, the balance is definitely toward the back. That’s normal for attachment-capable string trimmers.

Hart 40V rushless carbon fiber string trimmer price

You can find this HART string trimmer at Walmart in-store and online for $248. The kit includes the trimmer, 4.0Ah battery, and fast charger (3x faster than Hart’s standard charger). Hart warranties the tool for 5 years and the battery for 3.

This article was initially published on protoolreviews.com by Kenny Koehler with editorial changes made by JEC Group.

Over the course of 24 months, the project will focus on manufacturing process optimisation for the volume production of composite components that can reduce drag on ships thereby cutting fuel usage. ÉireComposites will lead development and manufacturing, while University of Galway takes charge of analysis and testing. These two parties have a long, impressive history of collaboration, ensuring there is a strong partnership at the heart of this vital work.

The following strategic objectives will feed into achieving the overall goal of the project:

• Optimise the manufacturing process to increase its efficiency and strength, using the BladeComp software developed by UGalway.
• Validate the initial redesign by testing a demonstrator component at the large structure’s laboratory at UGalway.
• Optimise the manufacturing process for ensuring large volume production at reduced costs.
• Fabricate and test the full-scale component to validate the optimised redesign and verify Finite Element models.
• Explore commercial opportunities and new markets within Ireland and Europe to expand ÉireComposites’ customer base.

The Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland (SEAI) and the Marine Institute are providing almost €600,000 of funding to the project, under the SEAI National Energy Research, Development and Demonstration (RD&D) Funding Programme 2022. This programme invests in innovative energy RD&D projects which contribute to Ireland’s transition to a clean and secure energy future.

Kerrie Sheehan, Head of Department, Research & Technology, SEAI said: “Maritime transport plays an essential role in Ireland as an island nation and SEAI recognises the need to invest in research that will contribute to achieving emissions reductions in this sector and our 2030 overall targets. SEAI is delighted to co-fund this innovative and ambitious project with the Marine Institute which aims to reduce energy use in shipping.”

Veronica Cunningham, Research Funding Office Manager, Marine Institute said: “The Irish maritime sector, in line with the sector across Europe is seeking ways to decarbonise operations, reduce greenhouse gases emissions, and increase the use of low-carbon and renewable fuels to replace fossil fuels for shipping. The FASTSHIP project will develop a solution that can be retrofitted to existing vessels or designed into new ships, with a significant reduction in fuel consumption, and consequently decreasing vessel carbon emissions and shipping costs. The Institute is pleased to support this project awarded under the SEAI RD&D Programme.”

About ÉireComposites:
Established in 1998, ÉireComposites is an innovative design, manufacturing, and testing company, involved in lightweight, high-performance, fibre-reinforced composite materials, with an international blue-chip customer base of over 70 companies in aerospace, renewable energy, marine, and automotive sectors.

As a leader in designing and manufacturing composite materials ÉireComposites have extensive experience, state-of-the-art facilities and advanced design capabilities as a one stop shop for composites process and product development. The company is based in Inverin, Galway, Ireland with a 6000m² fully accredited facility and employs over 60 people.

About University of Galway:
First founded in 1845, University of Galway is a globally focused research-led university. The institution’s researchers are delivering research and innovations in areas such as climate action, clean energy, ocean, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems, sustainable bioeconomy, and One Health.

The Sustainable & Resilient Structures Research Group from Construct Innovate and the SFI MaREI Research Centre is based in the School of Engineering, and operates a Large Structures Testing Laboratory, and staff have a depth of knowledge relating to the design and testing of composite structures.

About SEAI:
SEAI is Ireland’s national energy authority investing in, and delivering, appropriate, effective and sustainable solutions to help Ireland’s transition to a clean energy future. We work with Government, homeowners, businesses and communities to achieve this, through expertise, funding, educational programmes, policy advice, research and the development of new technologies. SEAI is funded by the Government of Ireland through the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications. 

SEAI catalyses direct energy research action through the delivery of the annual RD&D Programme and through capacity-building processes with citizens and communities as well as private and public sector organisations. The revitalised SEAI RD&D Programme launched in 2018 and since then it has developed into a multi-annual call, involving companies, non-academic research institutions, 3rd level educational bodies, public sector, and semi-state bodies. SEAI also collaborate with other state bodies, including the Marine Institute, to co-fund research in cross-cutting areas, like this FASTSHIP project.

About Marine Institute:
The Marine Institute is the state agency responsible for marine research, technology development and innovation in Ireland. It provides government, public agencies and the maritime industry with a range of scientific, advisory and economic development services that inform policy-making, regulation and the sustainable management and growth of Ireland’s marine resources. Through the Institute’s Marine Research Programme it provides competitive funding for Irish-based researchers under national and international calls and initiatives.

This project is being supported with financial contribution from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland and the Marine Institute under the SEAI National Energy Research, Development & Demonstration Funding Programme 2022, Grant number 22/RDD/876.

Coming from all corners of the globe, the finalists include clean energy and desalination from sea waves and solar technologies; kelp forest restoration and seaweed innovations such as for bioplastics and methane-reducing livestock feed supplements; carbon dioxide removal such as through gasification of algae biomass, electrochemistry and alkalinity enhancement; and many more.

The finalists were selected by a global group of 18 Expert Evaluators for their impact potential, innovation, commercial and scale potential, capacity and feasibility, alignment with Prize principles, and the value of Prize support.

“We congratulate the semi-finalists and are thrilled to draw attention to these important and timely innovations to address our climate crisis, using the power of the ocean,” said Stanley Rowland, CEO of the Blue Climate Initiative. “As the current COP26 discussions emphasize, bold action on climate solutions has never been more urgent.”

The goal of the Ocean Innovation Prize is to identify and accelerate market-based ocean-related solutions to our climate crisis in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, and drawing insights from the Blue Climate Initiative’s Transformational Opportunities.

A High-Level Judges panel will select final winners early 2022, who will share the US$1 Million cash prize and be featured at the Blue Climate Summit in May 2022 in French Polynesia.

About CorPower Ocean:
CorPower Ocean brings innovative wave energy technology, converting ocean waves into clean electricity. Wave energy help offsetting the intermittency of wind and solar power, accelerating the transition to a 100% renewable future. Their technology is based on decades of research, inspired by the pumping-principle of the human heart, and using a composite buoy.

For Continuum, net zero doesn’t stop at generating clean energy from wind. They’re taking it a step further, by delivering to the European market a revolutionary industrial scale end-to-end service that ensures end of life wind turbine blades never die and most certainly never go to landfill or get hidden in energy hungry co-processed solutions.

When the end of their first life finally arrives, Continuum simply, logically, and efficiently recycle them into revolutionary new, high performing composite panels for the construction, and related industries. Their vision? Abandon the current landfilling, and drastically reduce CO2 emitted during currently applied incineration & co-processing in cement factories by 100 million tons by 2050, via their state-of-the-art mechanical composite recycling technology and their industrial scale factories.

Better yet? The technology is proven, patented, and ready to go. Reinhard Kessing, co-founder and CTO of Continuum Group ApS has spent 20+ years of research and development in this field, perfecting the reclamation of raw materials from wind blades and other composite products and transformation of these materials into new, high performing panel products.

By working with partners, Continuum’s first class, cost-effective solution covers end-to-end logistics and processes. This spans from the collection of the end-of-life blades through to the reclamation of the pure clean raw materials and then the remanufacturing of all those materials into high value, highly performing, infinitely recyclable composite panels for the construction industry or the manufacture of many day-to- day products such as facades, industrial doors, and kitchen countertops. The panels are 92% recycled blade material and greatly outperform competing products.

The result is a fully sustainable, ultra-low carbon footprint solution for an industry challenge that otherwise leaves mountains of waste.

Nicolas Derrien: Chief Executive Officer of Continuum Holdings ApS said: “We need solutions for the disposal of wind turbine blades in an environmentally friendly manner, we need it now, and we need it fast, and this is where Continuum comes in! As a society we are rightly focussed on renewable energy production, however the subject of what to do with wind turbine blades in the aftermath of that production has not been effectively addressed. We’re changing that, offering a recycling solution for the blades and a construction product that will outperform most other existing construction materials and be infinitely recyclable, and with the lowest carbon footprint in its class.”

Martin Dronfield, Chief Commercial Officer of Continuum Holding ApS and Managing Director of Continuum Composite Transformation (UK) Ltd, added “We need wind energy operators & developers across Europe to take a step back and work with us to solve the bigger picture challenge. Continuum is offering them a service which won’t just give their business complete and sustainable circularity to their operations but help protect the planet in the process,”.

Each Continuum factory in Europe will have the capacity to recycle a minimum of 36,000 tonnes of end- of-life turbine blades per year and feed the high value infinitely recyclable product back into the circular economy by 2024/25.

Thanks to investment from Climentum Capital and a grant from the UK’s ‘Offshore Wind Growth Partnership’, Continuum are planning for the first of six factories in Esbjerg to be operational by the end of 2024 and for a second factory in the United Kingdom to follow on just behind it. After that they are looking to build another four in France, Germany, Spain, and Turkey by 2030.

As part of this amazing story, and as part of their own pledge to promote green behaviour, Continuum have designed their factories to be powered by only 100% green energy and to be zero carbon emitting environments; meaning no emissions to air, no waste fluids to ground, and no carbon fuel combustion.

Investment opportunities still exist in Continuum and the company will be able to start taking end of life blades by the end of 2023.

About Continuum:
Continuum Holdings ApS is a company registered in Denmark, it has subsidiary companies in Denmark Continuum Aps and the UK Continuum Composite Transformation (UK) Limited. Continuum are giving a new purpose to end-of-life wind blades and composites, preventing them going to waste by using 20+ years of research and development and building state of art factories. They will reduce the amounts of CO2 emitted to the atmosphere by the current waste streams, delivering significant value to Europe’s Net Zero efforts.

The large-scale multi-material print was achieved by making modifications to the BAAM and including a new extruder design that accommodates a dual feed system.

For the past several years, CI has collaborated with the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to continuously improve and develop the BAAM. Initial research focused on large-scale printing of single material systems, typically short fiber reinforced polymers.

“The objective of this particular study was to demonstrate printing of a multi-material composites tool including transitions, exceeding 10 feet in length, containing recycled material and printed without manual intervention,” said Alex Riestenberg, CI’s Additive Manufacturing Product Manager.

The part selected for this demonstration was a single facet of a precast concrete tool used in the production of commercial window panels for a high-rise development in New York City. The mold weighed approximately 400 pounds, with a length of 10 feet, 10 inches. Print time was approximately seven hours.

“Studies have shown that by using multiple materials within a structure, new mechanical responses and multi-functionality can be achieved—such as light-weight structures with tailored mechanical properties, soft and rigid segments within a part and impact resistant structures,” said ORNL materials scientist Vidya Kishore.

The two materials used in the build were a blend containing 100% recycled CF/ABS and standard CF/ABS and ABS Syntactic foam.

Besides the ecological benefits of using recycled materials, the advantages of multi-material extrusion include incorporating conductive circuit printing for smart structures, light-weight core structures, lower costs for tooling, easier removal of support material, localized reinforcement of specific areas, the capability to use different materials in different features on the component, and even changing the color of the part.

The key to the accomplishment of the goals outlined above was the BAAM Multi-Material system, developed in conjunction with ORNL. The large dual-material thermoplastic extrusion system allows the user to print with multiple different materials within a single build using just one extruder.

“The source of material fed into the extruder is switched on the fly at specific times during a print by sliding two material ports back and forth over the infeed to the extruder,” said Riestenberg. “The system also includes a material blender outside the frame of the machine that can blend specific amounts of different materials and fillers on the fly for specific custom material grades.”

Riestenberg explained that the combination of the material feed switching mechanism and the material blender gives users the ability to print with several different types of materials and material combinations within a single build, instead of two.

“The BAAM with a multi-material system upgrade is the only machine that can currently do this, and that sets us apart from our competitors,” said Riestenberg. “With the scientific research support of DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office and ORNL, we’ve been able to achieve this manufacturing milestone.”

SMC materials are used by automotive part suppliers to manufacture composite components such as truck bumpers, air deflectors, fenders and trunk lids as well as e-mobility solutions including battery covers and battery boxes. For the logistics and construction industries, SMC technology is used to manufacture pallets, door skins, light wells, switch cabinets and components for rail vehicles. While most SMC applications still rely on error-prone and time-consuming manual processes, Dieffenbacher’s fully automated Fibercut SMC cutting and stacking system delivers significantly increased productivity and plant efficiency.

The intelligent Fibercut consists of a cutting unit with a cutting belt, a stacking table and a quick-change unit for SMC on coil or in festoons to further increase productivity. The cutting unit communicates with the stacking gantry or robot and is able to implement complex laying patterns automatically. “Different cutting patterns can be realized at the same time with maximum flexibility. Using an active compensation cut, deviations in the weight of the material stack will be actively corrected. This ensures compliance with weight tolerances and maximum reproducibility even with the geometric complexity of the SMC layer structure,” says Marco Hahn, Director Sales of Dieffenbacher’s Forming Business Unit.

The new quick-change unit enormously increases the system’s availability by allowing a complete SMC coil or festoon changeover within a few minutes. Including gripper change stations, the production line can be rapidly switched over to another component. Further, the Fibercut monitors when the SMC material nears an end and notifies the operator. The operator can prepare to change the material without an unplanned stop of the machine. The quick-change unit is equipped with an automated foil removal system to reduce the “on-air time” of the SMC to preserve the styrene for optimal part quality.

“Since the material can be prepared entirely offline and the material change process runs fully automatically, the quick-change unit saves 10-15 minutes per change compared to conventional cutting systems,” explains Hahn. Assuming annual production of 80,000 pieces, SMC consumption of 2 million lbs. per year and 600 related coil changes, output can be increased by 3,000-4,500 parts or 3-5% per year. “Utilizing SMC festoons, the annual output of the production line can be increased even more,” Hahn adds. “As festoons usually contain less SMC material than coils, more changes are needed to achieve the same output per year. The quick-change unit ‘converts’ change time into additional production time, enabling an increase in output of up to 5-7%.”

After the SMC material is unwound from the coil or conveyed out of a festoon fully automatically, it is cut to size as required by automatically engaging longitudinal knives and a crosscutting knife. The position of the longitudinal knives can be adjusted manually for creating different cutting patterns. The material feed takes place by means of a driven mangle roll system: Consistent tension on the material as well as changes in the coil diameter are compensated for by the interaction of a dancer roll system with a controlled roll unwind drive, which ensures uniform material infeed.

The SMC edge trimming removes the dry edges of the SMC material for better part quality and a reduced scrap rate. During cross-cutting, the roller knife is lightly pressed against a “shear block.” This ensures the most precise cuts and delivers a robust cutting process (scissor cutting). It also enables precise compensation cuts. “To reduce maintenance costs, all knives are designed as roller knives. All longitudinal knives operate ‘contactless,’ meaning they run in grooves and have contact only with the material. This increases the service life of the equipment and reduces operating costs,” says Hahn. For maximum flexibility, the Fibercut can be equipped with a customized number of roller knives. During production, the knives can be switched on and off individually to create different cutting patterns.

From the cutting conveyor, the SMC cuts are stacked on a separate stacking table with weighing cells by using a handling robot or gantry to create an individually configurable SMC stack. Inline weight measurement of each cut and the corresponding length correction of the subsequent cut actively compensate for any weight fluctuations in the material. A precise total weight of the final SMC stack is thus guaranteed. A robot then picks up the complete SMC stack off the stacking table and places it into the mold of the press using a corresponding gripper. “The optimized stack weight results in better material flow and cavity filling, which reduces the overall scrap rate. In addition, the Fibercut pre-stacks SMC layers to simplify the stacking process. This reduces the cycle time and increases productivity,” Hahn explains.

The Fibercut has an intuitive and clear visualization to monitor the material infeed for optimized changeover times as well as the stacking process of the SMC batch to control the weights of the cuts or the final SMC stack. The recipe menu helps to keep track of existing projects or parts and saves the cutting patterns. “Operators get a quick and clear overview of the current status of the machine at all times,” says Hahn. “Distinct text messages and a notification archive facilitate troubleshooting,” he adds.

The Fibercut can be used both in a fully or semi-automated production cell and, in an alternative design, even in a manual production setup. In a fully automated production cell, SMC stacking is performed by a stacking robot or gantry. Further, Dieffenbacher offers line integration, programming and gripper systems. For use in a manual production setup or semi-automated production cell, the Fibercut is equipped with safety features that allow safe human interaction. Additionally, the Fibercut is available as a “transportable system” that can be used flexibly in different production areas within a building, e.g., for different presses. The footprint of Fibercut is approximately 6,300 mm by 2,800 mm. The cutting belt and stacking table are customizable.

At an open house event at Dieffenbacher’s headquarters in Eppingen, Germany, in July 2023, customers saw a live presentation of Fibercut and its benefits. The functionality of the system was demonstrated on a machine that was delivered to a customer directly after the event.

“We have incorporated the feedback and requirements of our long-standing customers into the development of our new Fibercut SMC cutting and stacking system to ensure that it makes an important contribution to the efficient production of composite components, especially, but not only, for e-mobility,” Hahn concludes. “Compared to manual processes, the Fibercut enables shorter cycle times and consistently high component quality. This results in considerably increased productivity and significantly improved plant efficiency.”

Longer and lighter rotor blade designs

Resin materials must prove their long-term aging resistance before they can be given lower safety margins that allow for broader rotor blade design and application. For the first time ever, DNV has lowered the γm1 factor of polyurethane resin, marking an important milestone for Covestro.

Compared to epoxy resin, which is often used to manufacture rotor blades, polyurethane resin shows better mechanical properties. With a lower γm1 value, rotor blade designers can take full advantage of polyurethane and also achieve greater design freedom. As the need for longer and larger rotor blades increases, so does the weight of the blades. Therefore, weight reduction has become an important issue in the rotor blade industry. Polyurethane resin enables the production of lighter blades with the same length, which greatly improves the efficiency of blade production and its applications.

Dr. Irene Li, vice president of research and development for Covestro’s Tailored Urethanes business entity in Asia Pacific, remarked, “We are pleased that the excellent performance of polyurethane has been recognized by a wind power industry’s certification authority. As more and more polyurethane rotor blades are installed, we look forward to further innovations in polyurethane resin and the rapid development this will bring to the wind power industry.”

Innovative materials in focus

For a long time, epoxy resin was the main material used in the production of wind rotor blades. For years, Covestro has invested in research into polyurethane resins to improve rotor blade performance and reduce manufacturing costs. Today, polyurethane – a new material in the field of wind rotor blade manufacturing – is rapidly gaining recognition in the market. With this innovative solution, Covestro aims to drive the use of renewable energy and, in the end, the shift to a circular economy.

Kim Sandgaard-Mørk, executive vice president of DNV’s Renewable Energy Certification Division, said, “Wind turbine blades are becoming lighter and larger, while favorable feed-in tariffs for wind energy are gradually being reduced. This poses a challenge for cost control in wind rotor blade production and development. The wind power industry is therefore looking for new material applications while optimizing designs to reduce costs while ensuring optimal performance. By demonstrating the performance of polyurethane under the new blade standards and obtaining a new safety factor certification for its resin products, Covestro is blazing a new trail for blade design.”

Sabic’s certified renewable butadiene is derived from animal-free and palm oil-free ‘second generation’ renewable feedstock, such as tall oil, a by-product from the wood pulping process in the paper industry. This feedstock is not in direct competition with human food and animal feed production sources. According to the cradle-to-gate lifecycle analysis, from sourcing the raw feedstock to producing the polymers, each kilogram of the company’s bio-based butadiene reduces CO2 emissions by an average of 4 kilograms compared to fossil-based virgin alternatives. Additionally, each ton of the butadiene also cuts fossil depletion by up to 80 per cent. 

Mohammed Al-Zahrani, Vice President, Chemical at Sabic adds, “Sustainability in Sabic is embedded across our organization and goes hand in hand with our commitment to helping our customers and their customers meet their own sustainability targets. Developing more sustainable solutions requires partnerships across the value chain. Our collaboration with Kraton for renewable butadiene as feedstock for Kraton’s polymers is another example of working together towards our common goals and confirms the wide interest from the chemicals industry in developing sustainable solutions for the future. After Sabic’s earlier successes in developing certified renewable and circular ethylene, propylene, and benzene, we are delighted to add certified renewable butadiene to our Trucircle portfolio.”

Sabic’s certified renewable butadiene will be used in Kraton’s newly launched ISCC PLUS certified renewable CirKular+™ ReNew Series to expand Kraton’s existing suite of solutions designed to advance the circular economy. With up to 70% certified renewable content, the ReNew Series offers customers the opportunity to use the mass balance approach and adopt ISCC PLUS certification to produce renewable products. Kraton successfully produced CirKular+ ReNew Series Hydrogenated Styrenic Block Copolymers (HSBC) at the Berre plant earlier this year using Sabic’s renewable butadiene. 

“Kraton’s ambition is to enable the bioeconomy and play a role in advancing the circular economy. Value chain collaboration is instrumental in achieving progress towards a circular economy. Kraton is excited to collaborate with Sabic in using certified renewable butadiene enables us to develop and produce styrenic block copolymers with up to 70% of certified renewable raw material content,” said Holger Jung, Kraton Senior Vice President, and Polymer Segment President. “This is an exciting innovation for our customers as it can help reduce the carbon footprint of fossil-based HSBC made in our Berre plant by up to 65 percent”. 

International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS certification is a globally-recognized system that provides traceability of recycled and renewable-based materials across a complex supply chain, by following predefined and transparent rules.

Sabic’s Trucircle portfolio spans a range of products and services, including design for recyclability, mechanically recycled products, certified circular products from feedstock recycling of used plastic, certified renewable products from bio-based feedstock and closed-loop initiatives to recycle plastic back into high quality applications and help prevent valuable used plastics from becoming waste. 

The solution is based on three steps: cutting of the material on a conveyor cutter or tape feeder,  picking of the material by the robot and then placing and spot-welding the plies to create a stabilized preform, ready to be moulded. It can work with the existing, wide material rolls to optimize the cost and does not need new design or qualification effort, since it uses existing processes for cutting and welding. Depending on the need, different variants can be supplied, optimized for productivity, accuracy or flexibility. One of the great advantages of Airborne Preforming technology is that it can create any preform: in size, in shape (making free-form edges and 100% net-shape), and in thickness variation, and it can also make cut-outs in the middle of the ply.

Increasing need for all-round automated preforming solution
Typically, the process of creating a preform is quite costly. Many composite forming processes, such as press consolidation, press forming, vacuum forming, or diaphragm forming, are based on the use of tailored 2D preforms or blanks. Although the forming processes are usually efficiently automated, the blanks or preforms going into these processes are often produced manually – a repetitive process, requiring both skill and concentration from the operators. With higher production rates it becomes increasingly difficult for operators to keep up with production while maintaining quality. And if automation of the process is considered, in many cases the engineering and programming time is prohibitive, especially in factories with a wide mix of products.

Scalable and easy to use
Airborne is now conquering these challenges with the launch of its very flexible Automated Preforming system. Automated programming allows for short start-up times with no engineering effort: no programming is needed. The design file can be loaded directly into the machine and the preform can be made without intervention. The Airborne Preforming system can handle both dry fibre and thermoplastic composite materials in many different forms (UD, fabric, core materials, surface films, adhesive films, etc.). Functionalities can be added easily (quality control, preform offloading, additional material feeds, higher volume material feeds, etc.).

Marcus Kremers, CTO Airborne:
“The basic principle of the system is very simple: ‘Pick & Weld’. This is a pick and place action by the robot during which we spot-weld the plies. We very much like this conceptual simplicity since it makes the process very robust, flexible and versatile. Of course, the devil is in the detail to make it work consistently with the right quality. In many cases, customers handle lots of different materials and product designs. Their ideal situation is to have a single automation technology and that’s what we can provide them.”

Due to its expertise in the composite field and confidence in their capabilities, MTorres was awarded the Innovative Infusion Airframe Manufacturing System (IIAMS) project, funded via the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme under grant agreement No 820845.

The project

The IIAMS project is related to advanced low-weight, high-performance structures. More specifically, this innovative system had to enable the manufacturing of flyable components for a wing box carbon fibre composite structure, which had to be manufactured by infusion. Moreover, all the structural elements had to be manufactured by AFP lay-up for higher quality. And all this without forgetting the main aim: achieving a significant cost reduction.

As can be seen in the figures, the team developed everything but one of the skins for a 4m long outer torque box without fasteners, using vacuum bag-only resin infusion for both the left and right wings of a C-295 turboprop demonstrator. It was a one-shot process, including the skin, spars, stringers and stiffeners, where all the components had different shapes and thicknesses.

The wing box used narrow (12,7 mm wide) dry carbon fibre tapes and high-temperature (180°C Tg) curing resins, with energy-saving tools, low-cost heating systems and sensor- based digital control and simulation to predict and manage the processing step.

One of the project’s most demanding requirements was portability. It was critical that all the tooling and manufacturing equipment were portable and flexible in order to facilitate an easy deployment at any manufacturing site. In addition, the manufacturing process could not make use of existing means, such as overhead cranes, in order not to interfere with existing manufacturing processes. The Automated Centre for Thermo Infusion (ACTI) was designed for this purpose, performing hot drape forming of the stringers and spars, including their stiffeners; infusion of the stringers, spars, stiffeners and skin altogether; and cure cycles without resin sure application, just vacuum. Moreover, also looking for lightweight and tolerance accuracy, the tooling was made of CFRP materials.

One of the leverage points when the company applied for this project was its experience in making its own materials and technology for dry fibre tapes.
During the development phase, they used their 12.7mm wide, 300g/m2 TorresTape® dry carbon fiber tape for process set-up and tuning, made from Mitsubishi Rayon 50K high-strength (HS) fibre, as it was engineered to facilitate and perform well during infusion, but also during lay-up using their AFP heads, so it was easier and less expensive for the project.

Last, but not least, the team had to deal with the challenging one-shot infusion process. They used positioners, caul plates and digital technology to monitor everything, and placed them altogether into the ACTI where the tooling was heated to 120°C. The Hexcel RTM6 epoxy resin was heated to 70°C and degassed before infusion through a single resin feed location. Despite the complexity of the process, the infusion was relatively quick, followed by a two-hour cure at 180°C using only hot air, sharing the same equipment used for Hot Drape Forming (HDF).

The results

The first prototype was built in less than 16 months (engineering, process definition, tests, tooling and prototype manufacturing). Lower cover, front and rear spars were integrated into the unitized flying demonstrator using a one-shot, low-cost portable process.
The IIAMS project represents the first product case of flyable and potentially certifiable carbon fibre wing box made using LRI and OoA composites in Europe.

This article has been published in the JEC Composites Magazine N°148.

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Manufacturing at rate

In 2021, Cygnet Texkimp became part of a collaboration to develop the technical and supply chain capability to achieve high-grade, composite-intensive parts at rate for high-volume markets. The ASCEND programme is a four-year UK partnership led by Tier-1 aerospace supplier GKN Aerospace, with funding from the ATI Programme, a partnership between the Department for Business and Trade, Innovate UK and the Aerospace Technology Institute.

As part of the programme, the company developed several pieces of technology to address the need for high-rate manufacturing of composite parts. These include the short-footprint, energy-efficient Multi Roll Stack prepreg processing solution, which is designed to deliver more sustainable, lower-cost thermoset prepreg and towpreg materials. Most recently, a fully-automated, five-axis filament winding cell capable of manufacturing, handling and processing CNG and hydrogen tanks cost-effectively at rate was also developed. The challenge in building the automated cell was to develop a system that could not only manufacture complex filament-wound parts effectively but do so in large volumes too. Crucially, this focus on volume requires effective management of the process. In addition to reducing the time it takes to wind complex composite parts, the objective was to make them viable in the market by developing bespoke systems to automate every stage of the process. The automation solution developed around Cygnet Texkimp’s filament winding technology means each component can be efficiently handled through the process, while critical data, including weight, size, fibre tension and resin-fibre ratio, are systematically gathered and recorded.

Winding capability

The multi-spindle winder is capable of processing many types of materials from slit tapes and towpregs to dry fibres combined with an in-line resin wet-out system. The automated demonstrator cell, which is housed at Cygnet Texkimp’s UK innovation centre, can manufacture tanks measuring 3 m long and 0.5 m in diameter, but the technology is entirely scalable.

To begin with, the focus is on the manufac­ture of tanks for the commercial automotive and aerospace sectors. But the cell also demonstrates the capability to produce hy­drogen vessels for high-volume, mainstream automotive where demand is expected to reach millions of units each year by 2040.

AGV technology

A robot-mounted compact automated guided vehicle (AGV) was used to perform multiple tasks in the cell (Figure 1). These include loading and unloading packages of fibre or tapes on and off the driven creel that feeds them at tension into the winding process, and manoeuvring tank liners and wound tanks weighing as much as 300 kg quickly and easily through the process, to eliminate manual handling and improve processing speeds. The robot is mounted onto an omni-directional AGV fitted with drive wheels that can rotate 360° and allow it to navigate in any direction. Unlike transfer cars, which run along rails, the AGV can run anywhere it is programmed to, and is ideal for use in factories with restricted floor space. The system can be programmed to follow a pre-determined route and easily re-programmed to accommodate layout or task changes, or controlled manually via a joystick. Multiple AGVs can be incorpo­rated into a single system, depending on the volume of tanks being produced, and fitted with traffic management technologies, including laser scanners and encoders, to ensure people and machinery can work safely alongside each other.

To maximise productivity, the AGV is programmed to perform tasks without having to pause the winding process. This capability is enhanced by an automatic or semi-automatic tie-on, tie-off solution. It is used to cut the fibres feeding the finished tank and hold them in place, ready to wind a new tank, with no or limited operator assistance required. The AGV removes the wound vessels from the process and replaces them with new vessel liners ready for winding. The wound vessels are then transported to an oven for curing, and onwards into other downstream processes.

Highest rates of production are achieved by increasing the number of spindles simulta­neously winding tanks. Each servo-driven spindle represents a single vessel. The machine can be scaled to incorporate 2, 4, 6, 8 or more spindles.

Data management

With high numbers of essential compo­nents being manufactured, part of the company’s role was to design a way to capture and record unique data about each one. To achieve this, an inspection protocol was built into the process that complies with the industry’s assessment and documentation standards.

An integrated weighing mechanism posi­tioned at each end of the spindle delivers an important set of data for each tank. It is used to weigh the tank liner before winding begins and the wound tank at the end of the winding process and again after curing, with results recorded in a unique data tag for each tank. The length and diameter of the liner and the wound tank, and the total length of fibre unwound from the creel into the process, can also be measured and plotted in the same way. This provides con­firmation that the correct amount of fibre and resin has been used to manufacture the tank and offers a valuable process check.

The tension of the fibre as it enters the winding process can also be measured, along with the temperature of the resin wet-out system, the amount of resin in the system, the hardener-to-resin ratio, and the level of inflation and pressure within the tank. Equipped with these measurements, the manufacturer is able to manage the balance between weight and strength and build the most accurate record of the tank. This allows the exact details of the tank’s manufacture to be traced back to the process in the future and used to identify trends, change recipes, and develop the process further. The data also facilitates recycling of the composite part at the end of its life.

Test cell

The full, production-scale winding cell at Cygnet Texkimp’s UK innovation centre is one of very few facilities in the world where manufacturers can explore a complete auto­mated process, using their own applications to develop bespoke solutions (Figure 2). The space is equipped with over €13,770 M (£12 M) of equipment from across the company’s fibre handling and processing portfolio. The facility is designed to enable composite manufacturers to develop and test the most appropriate solution for their exact needs.Cygnet Texkimp is currently working with several partners to support the development of Type III and IV tanks at rate. Howerver, this machine also has the capability to produce Type V and cryogenic tanks, which are of significant interest to aerospace and space programmes. Hydro­gen storage and distribution is another area of growth that is also beginning to be explored, given that moving and storing large volumes of hydrogen requires high numbers of very large tanks.

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In 2022, Toray developed a 100% bio-based adipic acid, a raw material for polyamide 66 (nylon 66), from sugars derived from inedible biomass. This achievement came from using a proprietary synthesis technique combining the company’s microbial fermentation technology and chemical purification technology that harnesses separation membranes. The recent demonstration was a first step toward creating a technology to make cellulosic sugar from biomass, putting it on track to mass production. The company now looks to establish an integrated technology to manufacture fiber and resin from abundant agricultural residue, avoiding competition with the food chain (see Figure 2).

Toray looks to set up a structure to supply cellulosic sugar in collaboration with Thai sugar refineries and starch manufacturers and other companies using biomass resources. It will endeavor to upscale technology from an effort under development to produce adipic acid from cellulosic sugar. In providing cellulosic sugars to chemical companies around the globe, Toray seeks to help materialize a circular economy by replacing petroleum-based chemicals with plant-derived offerings that are not part of the food chain. 

Toray is leveraging a basic policy of creating and deploying innovative new materials and technologies for tomorrow in entering new fields while drawing on internal and external collaboration to accelerate research. As part of this approach, it will engage in open innovation for membrane bioprocessing with players in different industries, establishing supply chains and providing solutions with companies using biomass and cellulosic sugar.

The technology announced is a fruit of NEDO’s Demonstration Project for an Energy-Saving Cellulosic Sugar Production System using Bagasse under International Demonstration Project on Japan’s Energy Efficiency Technologies. The demonstration plant is at a site in Udon Thani Province, Thailand, of Cellulosic Biomass Technology Co., Ltd., which Toray and Mitsui Sugar Co., Ltd., set up in January 2017. There, Toray verified and assessed manufacturing process energy savings, production performance, and the economic feasibility of this production system from August 2018 through December 2022. It completed the demonstration in March 2023. The Thai government looks for the new technology to contribute significantly to materializing the Bio-Circular Green Economy model, which the Thai Government deployed as a strategy for national development and post-pandemic recovery. 

Demonstration project overview
1.Name: Demonstration Project for an Energy-Saving Cellulosic Sugar Production System Using Bagasse (as part of NEDO’s International Demonstration Project on Japan’s Energy Efficiency Technologies)
https://www.nedo.go.jp/english/activities/activities_AT1_00175.html
2.Project period: August 2016 through March 2023
3.Demonstration period: August 2018 through December 2022
4.Location: Udon Thani Province, Thailand
5.Facility scale: Dried bagasse processing capacity of 3,000 metric tons annually

Demonstration technology details
1.Using enzymes and separation membranes to turn inedible plants into sugars
At the demonstration plant, Toray verified a technology to produce cellulosic sugar as a raw fermentation material for ethanol, lactic acid, succinic acid, and other substances by reacting unused bagasse and cassava pulp with enzymes, using membrane separation to purify and concentrate the resulting cellulosic sugar.
In verifying this technology with bagasse as a raw material, Toray confirmed that it is possible to halve enzyme usage by recovering and reusing enzymes in membranes. Such losses have been costly to date in producing cellulosic sugar.
The company further purified sugars with membranes, separating acetic and other organic acids from cellulosic sugars. It thereby obtained cellulosic sugars offering outstanding fermentability and confirmed that fermentation into ethanol and succinic acid and edible sugars is possible.

2.Cost savings in producing chemicals with proprietary enzyme production technology
Toray upscaled production of the enzyme production technology stemming from its R&D (a non-genetically modified organism enzyme production technology using a trichoderma filamentous fungi; attaining world-class enzyme production capacity). It used the upscaled enzyme production facilities in Thailand to demonstrate sugar production from bagasse. This enzyme production technology should serve as an on-site technology as sugar production systems spread, cutting enzyme costs to help such systems become mainstream.

3.Reducing total chemical production costs by using cassava pulp as raw material
cellulosic sugar derived from cassava pulp does not contain xylose (see note 4). It can be purified through membrane saccharification to remove viscous substances. This results in a sugar solution with higher glucose purity than that of cellulosic sugar derived from bagasse (see Figure 3). Toray also confirmed good conversion efficiency in fermentation through the demonstration effort. The high glucose purity and low impurity content could slash the total costs of manufacturing chemicals. Among them are adipic acid, the raw material for nylon 66.

Notes:
1.Cellulosic sugar is a solution whose prime component is glucose. It results from decomposing agricultural residue (biomass) that is not used as food.
2.Bagasse is a solid residue from pressing sugarcane. Sugar refineries burn some bagasse in boilers to generate electricity; the remainder is called surplus bagasse. Thailand is one of the world’s leading sugarcane producers.
3.Cassava pulp is a residue from extracting tapioca. It is used as livestock feed after drying in the sun. It cannot be preserved when undried, creating a need for ways to use it in that state.
4.Biomass-derived cellulosic sugars mainly comprise glucose, which microorganisms can easily metabolize, and xylose, which is hard for microorganisms to metabolize. Lower xylose concentrations enhance chemical production efficiency. Bagasse-derived cellulosic sugars normally have a glucose and xylose ratio of 2:1. Cassava pulp-derived cellulosic sugars have very little xylose.

Meet Toray Advanced Composites at JEC World 2023, hall 6, booth D28.
And Toray Carbon Fibers Europe, hall 5, booth J5.

Thorsten Groene, CEO of Cevotec explains:
“SAMBA Step systems with their flexible degree of automation are explicitly designed for prototyping and product development in R&D departments, institutes and universities. The systems feature individual robot configurations and are very flexible regarding the materials processed. They can additionally be equipped with a variety of sensors to monitor the production process. We currently plan an extension of the SAMBA Step system with 12 individual sensors that feed real-time data to an AI-based analysis engine.”

Augsburg University intends to use the system for research in the field of ceramic fiber composites. “We will investigate the patch-based process using ceramic fiber composites for new applications,”, states Prof. Dietmar Koch, head of chair in Materials Engineering at MRM.

With the installation of a SAMBA Step system at MRM in Augsburg, Cevotec also continues and strengthens the existing cooperation with Augsburg University of Applied Sciences.

Prof. Neven Majić, as one of Cevotec’s co-founders now dedicated to developing FPP technology in the science and research environment of the Augsburg institute, comments:
“AI is a relevant research topic for us. Fiber Patch Placement represents an innovative composite production technology with increased degrees of freedom. This offers a huge potential for AI development in patch-based composites manufacturing.” Majic’s research colleague Prof. Baeten underlines this statement and adds: “Fiber Patch Placement will be also used for the production of hybrid materials to achieve ultra-lightweight designs.”

While the Augsburg University was responsible for setting-up the initial SAMBA Step system, the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences will take over the future expansion with a sensor-intensive automated feeding unit. The SAMBA system, all parties agree, forms a solid foundation for joint research projects to come.

By partnering with carbon fiber sustainability leader, Vartega, the MITO team was able to harness all the behind-the-scenes development engineering of a sustainability process to create a custom solution that is the first of its kind and bring a new product to market.

Sustainable teamwork  

Vartega developed a relationship with MITO over a period of several years, starting in 2018 during a competition at SAMPE. The North America Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE) is the leading conference and exhibition on advanced materials and processes, specializing in composite materials for high-performance applications. MITO and Vartega began looking for collaboration opportunities.

“I’ve known Haley and Kevin since 2018. When I first met them at a SAMPE competition. We’ve just been in touch ever since, looking for opportunities to work together. Our business sets appeared to be potentially complementary,” notes Andrew Maxey, CEO of Vartega. “I was really impressed with their level of polish and maturity of their company. MITO really had their stuff together for what was initially a basic concept.”

“Since then, we’ve been talking about incorporating MITO’s materials into carbon fibre reinforced thermoplastics. The stars aligned this year and we finally had the capacity, infrastructure, and right formulation from MITO to combine with our recycled carbon fibre. So, this collaboration is really the culmination of several years of discussion and iteration around what it could be.”

“At SAMPE people kept saying, ‘MITO makes everything stronger and lighter and more durable – It would be really cool if you guys could do something with Vartega’s recycled carbon fibre, and then together you guys could change the world’,” stated Haley Keith, MITO’s CEO. “Then, in 2022, at the CAMX show, Andrew came over to me and said ‘We should do a booth together next year’. And I told him ‘I’m not doing a booth with you unless we have a product released’. That’s what put the timeline on developing a product that would support improved sustainability.”

Recycling in carbon fibre

Because carbon fibre manufacturing is an energy intensive process, waste diversion is a big factor in improving carbon fibre sustainability. Carbon fibre is typically made from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor fibre that has been stretched and heated at high temperatures to first oxidize and then carbonize the material. These high temperatures coupled with PAN fibres traditionally coming from fossil fuels, means that carbon fibre has a considerable carbon footprint.

By diverting waste carbon fibre from landfill, Vartega resets the material’s embodied energy to zero. Vartega’s recycled carbon fibre is 95% less energy intensive than virgin carbon fibre.

Vartega incorporated MITO’s LIGRATM into their Fenix Fibre EasyFeed bundle products – now offered as Fenix Fibre+. Fenix Fibre+ supplies documented game-changing performance with recycled materials.

Creating mito ligra

Short for “liquefied graphene”, LIGRATM is an aqueous graphene-based solution with functionalized surface chemistry on top of the graphene that allows it to be suspended into water which provides superior dispersion and the ability to integrate into different chemistries that are more water- based such as coatings, emulsions, and sizing chemistries such as Vartega’s Fenix Fibre+.

Developing fenix fibre +

Vartega’s primary customers are thermoplastic compounders. These are the companies developing the materials and the formulations for their customers, which are injection molders, through to thermoplastic compounding, and the injection welders who are making the parts for injection molders and OEMs.

When Vartega started, they focused on recycling aerospace carbon fibre prepregs. Their original recycled carbon fibres were low density, fluffy, and difficult for customers to work with.

The team at Vartega did concepts and pilot projects with partners early on. The general feedback was, “This is really cool. The mechanical properties are good. The economics are good. We’re glad that it’s recycled but we can’t use this carbon fibre in our applications. The format’s not right.”

To address this, Vartega explored and developed alternative formats to improve handling. Ultimately, they landed on the EasyFeed BundlesTM now known as Fenix Fibre. The Fenix Fibre format is favorable because of the increased bulk density and unique geometry that allows the carbon fibre bundles to flow. This is critical for use in thermoplastic compounding and injection molded parts.

The thermoplastic compounding process requires mixing molten plastic pellets with carbon fibre in a twin-screw extruder. Vartega’s EasyFeed Fenix Fibre bundles are a drop in replacement to virgin carbon fibre. They are used with traditional loss-in-weight feeders and side stuffers.

As a result of the early customer feedback, Vartega’s core customer philosophy became “making materials that are easy to integrate into existing manufacturing processes.” Any new product Vartega developed with MITO had to fit that parameter. The development cycle with MITO and Vartega was key to understanding how Vartega’s process worked and where the best opportunities were for MITO to plug in. The determination was made that the best fit for a graphene additive was in the sizing chemistry. The chemistry is quite specific, and the MITO team tried multiple iterations of different types of graphene to determine the optimum size and morphology. The key requirement was that it would disperse well in the type of aqueous solution used in sizing.

As a result of the early customer feedback, Vartega’s core customer philosophy became “making materials that are easy to integrate into existing manufacturing processes.” Any new product Vartega developed with MITO had to fit that parameter. The development cycle with MITO and Vartega was key to understanding how Vartega’s process worked and where the best opportunities were for MITO to plug in. The determination was made that the best fit for a graphene additive was in the sizing chemistry. The chemistry is quite specific, and the MITO team tried multiple iterations of different types of graphene to determine the optimum size and morphology. The key requirement was that it would disperse well in the type of aqueous solution used in sizing.

Working with partners

The MITO team explored multiple surface chemistries to ensure that the carbon fibre and graphene additive would bond and work together. In the end, integrating the graphene additive directly into the sizing solution that was already being used was the best approach. MITO’s team sent samples of LIGRATM to Vartega to test in their system. The first trial yielded fantastic results. Third party testing showed a 50% improvement in elongation and a 37% improvement in impact toughness. The MITO/Vartega team knew they had a winner in Fenix Fibre+ at that point.

Fenix Fibre+ addresses the needs of the composites industry for thermoplastic applications. The easy-feed bundle format of Fenix Fibre+ makes it very easy to use as a drop-in replacement for virgin fibre. That makes it that much more accessible for those applications. Manufacturer’s that have been running virgin carbon fibre can now process Fenix Fibre+ without any changes.

Sustainability impacts of lightweighting

With a higher performing material, you may decide to use less material to achieve the same strength. The less material you use, the less weight being added to that component thereby reducing the weight of whatever the part goes into. For automotive applications, the weight reduction is significant.

Material emissions reductions

Did you know for every kilogram of carbon reinforced composite made, an average of 46 kilograms of CO₂ are made? With the use of Fenix Fibre+, that number would drop to 27.6 Kilograms of CO₂ – a 50% reduction in material emissions.

“MITO additives mean we’re making materials stronger and more durable, we have the possibility of making things lighter,” notes Keith. “The MITO team is also optimizing processing and efficiency timing, which is creating a more sustainable manufacturing environment by utilizing less energy. And Fenix Fibre+ is sustainable – it’s made from recycled fibres and LIGRATM graphene which is derived from carbon neutral processing. It ties the whole value chain of sustainability all together through two points of sustainability. We’re very excited to explore additional plastics chemistry on the top half of the plastics pyramid with Vartega.”

The results

• 9% improvement in tensile strength
• 50% improvement in elongation
• 18% improvement in flexural strength
• 16% improvement in izod notched izod impact
• 37% improvement in unnotched izod impact

Meet Vartega at JEC World 2024, hall 6, booth P52.

Since its market launch, the uniEX series has established itself very successfully in the market. Following the extension of its process engineering options, it is now also available for sheet and board extrusion lines in three sizes (35, 45 and 60 mm), and thus replaces all older series. The output rates range from 50 kg/h to 500kg/h, depending on the material. The pronounced modularity of the extruders enables them to perform virtually any type of special processing task. A wide range of different plasticizing units is available to cover every application. These come with a choice of either grooved or smooth feed zones. Fitting the extruders with a degassing unit, as is required for ABS processing, presents no problem either.

Moreover, a great variety of different mechanical engineering options are available, such as screw extraction to the rear, a gearless drive via torque motor or flexible positioning of the control cabinet. Extensive standardization in production ensures high and above all fast availability of parts and consequently short delivery times and quick troubleshooting in case of problems.

The models of the uniEX series stand out by their extremely wide process and application window and their ability to process a great variety of different materials thanks to specific screw geometries.

China led the world in new installations for the third year in a row with more than 3 GW of offshore wind grid connected in 2020. Steady growth in Europe accounted for the majority of remaining new capacity, led by the Netherlands, which installed nearly 1.5 GW of new offshore wind in 2020, followed by Belgium (706 MW). 

The report forecasts 235 GW of new offshore wind capacity will be installed over the next decade under current policies. That capacity is seven times bigger than the current market size, and is a 15 per cent increase on the previous year’s forecasts. 

However, this is only 11 per cent of the capacity required to meet net zero targets by 2050, and the world has so far installed only 2 per cent of the offshore wind capacity that will be needed by the middle of this century to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. 

The Global Offshore Wind Report 2021 finds that wind has the biggest growth potential of any renewable energy technology. Currently 35 GW of capacity is installed globally, helping the world avoid 62.5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions – the equivalent of taking 20 million cars off the road – while providing 700,000 jobs across the planet. This is though only 0.5% of global installed electricity capacity. 

The Global Offshore Wind Report highlights that the policy environment needs to improve rapidly for offshore wind to reach international net zero targets. 

While some countries across the world have already put in place comprehensive offshore wind targets and strategies, the report finds that all together these targets across the world only account for 560 GW. Based on scenarios published by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the world needs 2,000 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2050 to have a chance of keeping global temperature rises under 1.5°C pre-industrial levels. 

The report highlights that delivering on offshore wind’s potential to achieve a Net Zero world calls for a step change in political action, in order to streamline planning and permitting regimes and reduce red tape, create robust market frameworks and overhaul power grids and other infrastructure. 

Ben Backwell, CEO at GWEC commented:
“The offshore wind industry continues to break records, reduce prices, and innovate to new heights and depths while creating significant industrial and socioeconomic benefits for countries capturing its potential. But as the G20 recognised at its most recent summit, we are in a climate emergency and we can no longer be content with simply breaking records – the scale of growth we need to achieve for the future of our planet goes beyond anything we have seen before. The offshore industry believes they can meet this challenge, but there is a clear target and policy gap that countries need to fill for the industry to deliver”. 

Applying ML processes to engineering problems typically requires expert knowledge and large amounts of training data to produce valid and reliable results, which leaves it out of reach for many smaller enterprises and non-specialists. By removing the need for complex data models and allowing the user to solve their problem by inputting widely-available CAD files, imagery or scalar data and relate it to training data from Hexagon’s simulation solutions, the ODYSSEE A-Eye platform makes powerful Digital Twin capabilities available to designers, production engineers, operators and other non-specialists. They can then make informed engineering decisions and explore problems interactively with near-realtime results.

Example applications include:

• Exploring how car wheel designs behave when impacting obstacles such as a kerb or debris. Engineers can build a database of different configurations using nonlinear finite element simulations such as the design or number of spokes to understand the effect of various designs. Vehicle design teams can then use this to quickly understand the behaviour of a wheel without any engineering or CAE knowledge based on only a 2D image.
• Predicting lift and drag coefficients for new aircraft wing profiles based on a 3D image of a new wing design, by building a database of just 16 wing profile simulations from the widely-used National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) definitions. Typically, this process would take several days, and demand the time and attention of a CAE analyst and multiple simulation tools.
• A machinist or machine salesperson using an ODYSSEE A-Eye application to predict how long a part will take to produce with a given CNC machine tool and metal, using just the database and 3D Step file, capturing valuable process knowledge for others to better plan production and bid for projects. By applying manufacturing process simulation, the same process can be applied to predict dimensional tolerances or the strength of joinery.

Engineers without machine learning knowledge can use ODYSSEE A-Eye to develop their robust AI applications based on any particular problem that needs to be overcome, from optimising tyre-tread design to fault-analysis of computer chips, and then make them available to others who need that knowledge. The new platform integrates with all of Hexagon’s CAE solutions, working seamlessly with customers’ existing processes and bringing AI to industries that may not have seen this as a feasible solution to their current design needs. Its accessibility means it can be used by companies who either do not carry CAE specialists, or want the expertise they do have to solve other problems or perform final design validation. With ODYSSEE A-Eye, a single engineering expert is able to specify an application that would help progress a design, and then feed that to the product design team and operators to execute.

Roger Assaker, President of Hexagon’s Design and Engineering Software Business Unit, said: “AI is an increasingly valuable tool within design and engineering, helping push virtual engineering to the next level. It has the potential to shorten the time taken to complete labour-intensive design tasks that may have previously taken days or weeks down to minutes or hours without losing simulation fidelity. Furthermore, the user-friendly design of ODYSSEE A-Eye makes it simple to integrate into modern engineering practices, democratising a highly advanced process for use by non-experts, and producing the results in a very accessible format.”

At the end of many value chains in aerospace or mechanical and plant engineering, for example, machines process the final contour of components made of fibre composites – a process that places high demands on the milling tool. Sensor systems that monitor and observe the process create optimisation potential here. Researchers at the University of Augsburg are currently using artificial intelligence to evaluate data streams that arise during CNC milling.

Observing and predicting

Research on such supposedly detailed process steps is relevant because industrial manufacturing processes are often highly complex, so that many factors influence the result. Equipment and machining tools wear out quickly, especially with hard materials such as carbon fibres. The ability to recognise and predict critical degrees of wear is therefore essential in order to be able to deliver high product quality. Research on an industrial CNC milling machine shows how suitable sensor technology coupled with artificial intelligence can deliver such forecasts and improvements.

Structure-borne sound as an indicator

The sensors are the “sensory organs” of the CNC milling machine. Most modern machines have some basic sensors already built in which record energy consumption, feed force and torque, for example. However, this data is not always sufficient for the resolution of fine details. For this reason, sensors for structure-borne sound analysis were developed at the University of Augsburg and also integrated into an industrial CNC milling machine. These sensors detect structure-borne sound signals in the ultrasonic range that are generated during the milling process and propagate in the system to the sensor. The structure-borne sound allows conclusions to be drawn about the state of the machining process. “This is an indicator that is as meaningful to us as bow strokes on a violin. Music professionals can tell immediately from this whether the instrument is in tune and how well the person playing it has mastered the instrument,” explains Prof. Dr. Markus Sause, director of the AI ​​Production Network

Machine learning

However, so that the milling process can also be optimised from the recording of the signal, the researchers working with Sause make use of what is known as machine learning. Certain characteristics of the acoustic signal can indicate an unfavourable process control, which points to poor quality of the milled component. As a result, the milling process can be directly adjusted and improved with this information. For this purpose, an algorithm is trained with recorded data and the corresponding states (e. g. good or bad machining). The person who operates the milling machine can then react – he is either presented with status information – or the system is programmed to react independently.

Predictive maintenance – acting with foresight

Machine learning can not only optimise the milling process directly on the workpiece, but also plan the maintenance cycles of a production plant as economically as possible. Functional parts should work in the machine for as long as possible in order to increase economic efficiency, but spontaneous failures due to damaged parts should be avoided.

Predictive maintenance is an approach in which the artificial intelligence calculates from the collected sensor data when a part should be replaced. In the case of the CNC milling machine under investigation, for example, an algorithm recognises when certain characteristics of the sound signal change. In this way, it not only identifies the degree of wear on the machining tool, but also predicts the right time to replace the tool. This and other artificial intelligence processes are being incorporated into the AI ​​Production Network that is currently being created in Augsburg. Together with other production facilities, a network is to be created that can be reconfigured in a modular and material-optimised manner.

Advanced composites in general – and thermoplastics in particular – are true game changers in the world of aerostructures because they enable the production of components that are simultaneously lighter and stronger than the materials previously used, and at lower cost. Another major advantage is that they can be recycled/repurposed as part of a circular economy. The resulting performance gains are therefore significant, and help limit aviation’s environmental impact.

The Shap’In TechCenter’s key purpose is to drive Daher’s consolidation of its leadership in aerostructure technologies, which are key to the aerospace industry’s success in meeting the twin challenges of competitiveness and reduced environmental impact.

A unique facility and resources

To ensure the 100% alignment of innovation and manufacturing, Shap’In is located on Daher’s Saint-Aignan-de-Grandlieu site, adjacent to its specialized production plant for thermoplastic aerospace components – which is one of the largest facilities of its kind in the aerospace industry.
This combination of innovation center and production plant brings together a unique set of skills and resources that will accelerate innovation in aerostructures and the methods and processes used to manufacture them. Shap’In will capitalize on the technological advances made by Daher in the design and production of aircraft wings, tails and engines by enabling designs to be put into production faster and with greater agility, thereby shortening the lead time to product maturity.

At the cornerstone unveiling ceremony, Daher CEO Didier Kayat said: “We are extremely proud to see this project come to fruition; a process that has accelerated significantly in recent months thanks to the support we have received from the France Relance national recovery plan. Together with Log’In, our future logistics acceleration platform at Toulouse; and Fly’In, the Tarbes innovation center dedicated to the forward development of our aircraft product range; Shap’In further underlines our determination to embrace the future, and will showcase how our technological expertise feeds into a cutting-edge French industry. It also will considerably extend our ability to develop disruptive technologies and their production processes. We are putting the needed resources in place for Daher to remain at the forefront of our industry, while also ensuring our status as a key player in tomorrow’s low-carbon aviation sector.”

360° innovation

Shap’In has been developed around three key axes:
• Expertise:

• People: By bringing R&D and production teams together, they will be able to work collaboratively and benefit from each other’s ideas in shortening the development and innovation cycle;
• Materials: While previously dispersed across a number of regions, all Daher composite material testing laboratories (which also work on behalf of other leading aerospace prime contractors) will now come together at a single site;
• Processes: The TechCenter will oversee new developments in production, new processes (e.g. induction welding, etc.), digital integration, etc.

• Equipment and resources:

• Shap’In will incorporate pre-development resources that bridge the gap between laboratory testing and the production line, as well as facilities for analyses of materials and finished products;
• These resources will make it possible to conduct research on reducing production costs, reducing the carbon footprint and boosting performance, with the ultimate aim of positioning Daher in new markets and setting the company distinctively apart from its Asian and American competitors;
• Being fully aligned with the Daher Open Innovation strategy, Shape’In also will provide the opportunity for selected manufacturers of production machinery essential for the manufacture of composite structural components to test their future developments on site in partnership with Daher.

• The decision in favor of the Nantes region:

• The Nantes technology hub boasts a very rich and diverse local R&D network (including the IRT Jules Vernes R&D institute for advanced manufacturing technologies, the EMC2 competitiveness cluster, etc.) in which Daher already is heavily involved;The Nantes region overall is recognized in the aerospace industry for its expertise in advanced composites, and its ability to respond effectively to tomorrow’s aerospace challenges, which include the recycling of material offcuts.

The winners of the prestigious Innovation Award for Fibre-Reinforced Plastics of the AVK, the German Federation of Reinforced Plastics, were presented in Salzburg this year. This award always goes to businesses, institutions and their partners for outstanding innovations in composites the three categories Products & Applications, Processes & Methods and Research & Science. Projects are submitted in all three categories and are evaluated by a jury of experts in engineering and science as well as trade journalists, who look at each project in terms of their levels of innovation, implementation and sustainability.

Products & Applications category

• First place in innovative Products & Applications went to Leichtbauzentrum Sachsen GmbH (LZS) and its partner KWD Kupplungswerk Dresden GmbH for their “Insulating Coupling Shaft For Rail Vehicles”.
  
  Toothed couplings are classic components in mechanical engineering and may have been invented immediately after the gear wheel. They are resistant to torsion and compensate for any angular misalignment within a small installation space. As this technology is already very mature, one might not expect any general further developments in this segment. Occasionally, however, special requirements arise, such as an application needing electrical insulation between shafts, so that there is indeed still room for innovative development. The two companies therefore developed traditional gear coupling into an electrically insulating intermediate shaft where the functional core element is a tube made of glass-fibre reinforced  resin. In this newly developed version, the shaft transfers torques up to 300 Nm at up to 13,000 min-1. At the same time, the high level of material damping that characterises fibre-reinforced plastic also improves the vibration behaviour of the coupling. Special attention was paid, in particular, to the development of the joining principle between the glass fibre tube and the metallic end pieces. This involved using a supported clamp connector which had been specially developed by LZS – a connector that is robust, overload-proof and inexpensive and which can also be attached quickly. The insulating intermediate shaft enables users (e.g. manufacturers of railway and machinery drives) to develop innovative, lightweight and, above all, compact drive units. Since then, the shaft has proved its worth in serial operation and can also be adapted for different specifications.

• Second place went to SGL Carbon for its “Electric Car Battery Housing Components Based on Innovative Continuous Fibre-Reinforced Phenolic Resin Composites”.
  
  Lightweight, crash-proof and fire-resistant composites are the materials of choice for battery housings in electric vehicles. They are able to safely contain even thermal runaways, i.e. the uncontrolled overheating of a battery cells. Until recently, such components have usually consisted of glass-fibre reinforced epoxy resin with fire-retardant additives. Now, however, SGL Carbon has for the first time started series production of a component that uses phenolic resins in an innovative process chain, combining them with continuous glass fibres. This solution reduces the wall thickness of the housing components by up to 25% compared with solutions based on an epoxy resin matrix, while also achieving better performance. After all, every gram counts when it comes to optimising the range of an electric vehicle. Also, improved process control saves material during production and therefore valuable resources.

• Third place went to Composites Technology Center GmbH (CTC GmbH) and its partners, Faserinstitut Bremen e. V, Sächsisches Textilforschungsinstitut e.V., C.A.R. FiberTec GmbH; partners Japan: CFRI Carbon Fiber Recycle Industry Co., Ltd., IHI Logistics and Machinery Corporation, ICC Kanazawa Institute of Technology for their “High Performance Recycled (HiPeR) Carbon Fibre Materials“.
  
  The aerospace industry is increasingly turning to carbon fibre-reinforced plastics (CRP). These valuable fibres, which are made from production waste or end-of-life components, can be recovered through pyrolysis on a major scale. However, due to their inadequate price-performance ratio, recycled materials of this kind are still not used very widely. A considerable amount of time and money is required to recover such carbon fibres, so that the resulting price is no longer attractive. Compared with continuous virgin carbon fibres, short fibres perform rather poorly, i.e. within a range that lacks attractiveness for high-performance applications.
  
  The aim of this joint German-Japanese project, led by CTC GmbH, was to improve the price-performance ratio of semi-finished recycled carbon fibre products through a high degree of fibre alignment. The manufacturers convincingly demonstrated general feasibility by presenting the extremely promising mechanical characteristics of the material together with a range of full-size mock-up aircraft components.

Procedures & Processes category

• First place in Processes & Methods went to KraussMaffei Technologies GmbH and its partner Wirthwein SE for their “Chopped Fibre Direct Process (CFP)”.
  
  This innovative direct fibre-processing method, CFP, will transform the fibre processing into injection-moulding machines. Being efficient and simple, it saves up to 46% in material costs and 0.8 kWh/kg in energy, as it eliminates the need for pre-compounded materials. By using a standard injection moulding machine and a patented screw, CFP significantly reduces production costs. All that needs doing is some adjustments to the material feed and the screw. CFP has reached TRL 8 and has also been successfully tested in automotive injection-moulding applications. The new screw design allows cost-effective retrofitting of existing machinery, replacing expensive continuous-fibre processes. The patented screw geometry also permits direct processing of waste materials from other production processes, such as PA-CF waste from the aerospace industry, without the need to separate fibres and polymers. The new process, CFP, promises quality, efficiency and sustainability.

• Second place went to the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation and its industrial partners Schindler Handhabetechnik GmbH and Vision & Control GmbH for their “CIRC (Complete In-House Recycling of Thermoplastic Compounds)” process.
  
  Together, they developed an innovative process for the efficient use of offcuts from the processing of thermoplastic organic sheets. Current recycling processes have so far led to the loss of fibre-composite structures and thus also of the high mechanical strength associated with them. The new process captures the geometry and material data of offcuts, combines them efficiently and consolidates them into a new organic sheet via a thermoforming process. Besides a high recycling rate, this also ensures that the relevant mechanical properties are largely retained. The process thus promises a more sustainable and cost-efficient use of organic sheets by minimising waste, while also being scalable to suit different types of applications and materials.

• Third place went to CarboScreen GmbH together with the Institute of Textile Technology at RWTH Aachen University for  “CarboScreen – Sensor-Based Monitoring of Carbon-Fibre Production”.
  
  Carbon fibres are among the most important lightweight construction materials. They are made through the thermal conversion of a PAN fibre. The manufacturing process is highly complex and sophisticated. At present, it is only monitored visually in the industry, by semi-skilled staff. However, inadequate process control can lead to fibre damage and, in extreme cases, to production line fires that are often not detected early enough. To ensure satisfactory product quality, the maximum production speed is limited to 15 metres per minute, which considerably reduces the production capacity of a plant. To improve and accelerate the manufacturing process, CarboScreen GmbH, a company founded under an EXIST grant, now offers a sensor-based monitoring system for carbon fibre production. The underlying technology allows the continuous monitoring of fibres during production and automatically identifies any deviations.

Research & Science category

• First place in Research & Science went to Faserinstitut Bremen e. V. for its “Development of a Stereocomplex PLA Blend on a Pilot Plant Scale”.
  
  Working on a pilot plant scale and using an innovative type of process control, the AIF research project PLA² was the first to produce a blend that is based on the biopolymer called polylactide (PLA) and which has a stereocomplex crystalline structure and a melting temperature of 235°C. Scale-up to industrial dimensions allows for sample material availability, thus creating the potential to develop self-reinforced PLA fibre composites, which will significantly expand the range of applications. This will make it possible to replace conventional plastics such as polypropylene (PP) and thus to save resources and protect the environment.

• Second place went to the Chair of Carbon Composites at the Technical University of Munich and its partners Apppex GmbH and Haas Metallguss GmbH for their “Fibre-Reinforced Salt as a Robust Lost Core Material”.
  
  The innovation is a new lost core material and a range of manufacturing process designed to produce it. Lost cores give the designer a completely new scope for creativity that would be impossible to achieve with conventional tools. Depending on the component geometry and process conditions, the material has to meet stringent requirements. While it needs to be robust enough to survive the filling process, it must also highly soluble. The combination of materials is based on the principle of fibre-reinforced ceramics. A water-soluble salt (e.g. NaCl) is combined with either short or continuous fibre reinforcement, transforming the originally brittle fracture behaviour into a pseudo-ductile one. Fibre-reinforced salt is a lost core material that has high levels of mechanical strength and impermeability and which can be dissolved in water and recycled. It is suitable for materials that make major thermomechanical demands on a water-soluble core material, e.g. under injection moulding, RTM and light-metal die casting.

• Third place went to Sächsisches Textilforschungsinstitut e.V. (STFI) and its partner Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT) for “VliesSMC – recycled Carbon Fibres with a Second Life in the SMC Process”.
  
  The researchers succeeded in integrating recycled carbon fibres in the form of nonwovens or unbonded nonwoven layers into an SMC and then processing this product not through compression moulding, as is normally the case, but through extrusion. Thus, nonwoven-based SMC can be used for the production of complex components with high levels of deformation and reinforcing elements (e.g. ribs). Together with a project committee of 25 industry representatives, the research partners demonstrated that these SMC have two benefits: first, they can be manufactured more cost-effectively than commercially available products made from primary materials, and secondly, their performance is as good as or even better than that of others. Moreover, the results were not obtained on a laboratory scale, but have already been validated on a pilot plant scale, so that a big step has been taken towards feasibility.

The award ceremony was held in Salzburg, at the JEC Forum DACH. As part of this event, the JEC Composites Startup Booster competition has designated the best startup of the DACH Region.

JEC Startup Booster shining a light on entrepreneurship

Technologies, business models, applications… Industrial startups continually develop cutting-edge innovations raising the interest of manufacturers who wish to take a part in the markets of tomorrow, helping the startups to grow in the meantime. Five finalists have pitched in front of the jury of experts of the composites industry, granting them and their project a considerable visibility among professionals of the sector across Europe. After deliberation of the jury in a closed room, the name of the winner was revealed and officially announced at the Awards Ceremony:

CARBOCON – Germany
Leading service provider when it comes to carbon reinforced concrete
CARBOCON is an independent service provider in the field of the innovative building material carbon reinforced concrete. They operate in different areas of business, ranging from civil engineering services to introducing new products and processes to the market. In this way, they advocate progress and sustainability in the building industry.

“As our world becomes increasingly connected, so does the need for faster and higher capacity wireless connections,” Trevor Polidore, New Product Development Group Leader at Rogers Corporation said. “Partnering with Fortify will allow Rogers to deliver a complete solution for the manufacturing of 3D-printed dielectric components, enabling our customers to create the next generation of wireless systems.”

Wireless communications and SATCOM systems have led the expansion of active antenna systems (AAS) use into mainstream consumer applications. By taking advantage of AAS’s ability to generate highly directive signals that can be electronically steered and form various beam patterns, the latest applications such as 5G and high-throughput satellites (HTS) can deliver services previously inaccessible with conventional antennas.

However, many AAS technologies are expensive and complex to manufacture with multitudes of performance tradeoffs that often require new technologies and high cost devices to yield competitive solutions. It is possible to address some of these challenges with intricate 3D dielectric materials, but complex 3D dielectrics have historically been difficult or impossible to manufacture with the necessary cost, quality, and repeatability to meet practical manufacturing requirements.

“The photopolymers available today are an order of magnitude more lossy than thermoplastics, yet 3D printing complex parts at scale out of thermoplastics is time consuming.” Phil Lambert, Sr. Applications Engineer at Fortify said. “With the right low-loss material systems from Rogers combined with Fortify’s printers, we can offer a solution that provides excellent feature resolution, great RF properties, and high throughput capabilities for end-use parts.

While traditional DLP platforms struggle to print highly viscous materials, CKM technology employed on all Fortify Flux Series printers allow for the processing of advanced materials, such as Rogers’ low loss materials, while maintaining material quality and consistency throughout the manufacturing process.

“With Rogers, we are positioned to commercialize the first scalable, low-loss 3D printed RF dielectric materials,” Josh Martin, CEO and Cofounder of Fortify said.  “This partnership is a great example of how innovative materials and technology companies can come together and provide a differentiated value proposition to a rapidly growing market. Fortify has a scalable way of manufacturing continuously varying dielectric material, which is a game changer for the scanning beam antenna market (5G, surveillance, remote sensing, and security).”

Applications of this new technology include passive lens devices that augment gain and directivity for single or multi feed systems found in RF sensing and SATCOM On-The-Move commlinks, and 5G AAS systems to widen field of view and reduce sidelobe levels.

The advantages of Fortify’s 3D printers for printed RF dielectric technology include: lower weight, wide bandwidth, scalable manufacturing, structure design freedom, quick turnaround parts, and more. The two companies continue to collaborate to optimize printing processing parameters to realize all these benefits and more.

According to Dr. Tim Bremner, Materials Technology Director at CDI:
“In the past decade, thermoplastic-based materials development in the energy and chemical process sectors has been dominated by the push for operation at higher temperatures and higher pressures. The added challenge of achieving customers’ performance targets in very high or very low pH fluid handling, as encountered in sulphuric acid production or caustic amine gas treaters, introduces another challenge to material design due to the limitations these corrosive environments place on our choice of fillers and reinforcements. We are more than enthusiastic about the performance of dures® 200 in pump applications where the combined temperature, pressure, and corrosive fluids would cause premature failure in lower-performing materials.”

Currently, dures® 200 is delivering similar results for custom-designed components in single-stage overhung pumps and horizontally split multistage pumps with lean amines under pressures of over 200psi. Pump operators using dures® materials can operate their equipment with tighter clearances, decreasing vibration and downtime while improving and boosting efficiency. CDI’s dures® materials also improve reliability and reduce maintenance costs by reducing the risk of pump failures due to touch-off or dry running conditions during start-up. In the dures® family of materials, A451 and XPC2 are also recognized by API and meet the requirements of API 610 for stationary wear or rotating parts applications.dures 200 Social Media V1

Gary Gibson, P.E., CDI’s Senior Sales Engineer for API 610 Pump Components says:
“API pumps are manufactured to meet certain industrial requirements including specifications that directly affect performance and safety. Designing components for those extreme duty pumps requires extensive technical knowledge of both the equipment and the environments for end use.”

Every five years, the API Committee convenes to review API standards and seek comments from its members which includes oil and gas industry leaders and distinguished industry institutes. Gibson goes on to say, “when the API 610 Twelfth Edition was released earlier this year, we were thrilled to learn that dures® 200 was now recognized in the non-metallic wear part materials selection.”

CDI’s team has extensive pump knowledge with proven results for components developed for circulating water pumps, cooling water pumps, boiler feed multistage pumps, river and waterway pumps, screening wash pumps, sump tank pumps, and much more. To learn more about dures® 200, or the dures® family of materials for power generation, hydrocarbon processing, or water treatment applications, contact a CDI representative.

“Already when Cevotec officially joined the FPC at JEC World 2019, it was clear that a Fiber Patch Placement (FPP) system will be installed in the FPC to provide our partners and customers with a complete portfolio of the latest technologies and developments for the next generation of composite manufacturing. The new SAMBA Pro Prepreg System from Cevotec offers many advantages for the production of complex shaped components with short cycle times”.

Cevotec, together with its partner Baumann Automation, have commissioned the SAMBA Pro Prepreg production cell in Meitingen since November 2020. It is now ready for operation and the first application development projects have already been started.

The SAMBA Pro Prepreg system in Meitingen is an advancement of the FPP system presented in 2017 at the JEC World in Paris. “In order to ensure maximum flexibility in terms of geometry and patch edges, a laser cutting unit was installed also in this system,” reports Felix Michl, CTO of Cevotec. “The entire material feed is temperature-controlled, so that the pre-impregnated materials can be processed in a controlled environment.” The robots in the system are the well-known and proven pair of TP80 pick-and-place robot and the TX200 tool manipulator from Stäubli. “This configuration enables us to ensure a high lay-up frequency combined with a very high positioning accuracy, allowing for a fully automated lay-up of complex geometries of medium to small dimensions,” explains Michl. In addition, the vision system, the machine vision quality control system for material quality and placement accuracy, has been fundamentally revised by Cevotec and now offers extended set-up options to adapt the system to different materials.

“We look forward to further developing the FPP technology together with our FPC partners and to opening up new fields of application”, states Thorsten Groene, Managing director of Cevotec.

Dr. Renato Bezerra, research associate at Fraunhofer IGCV added:

“Within the context of the FPC, the production system serves interested industrial companies from various sectors for active technology and application development, together with the researchers of the Fraunhofer Institute. It is really exciting for Fraunhofer IGCV to have the SAMBA Pro Prepreg put to operation at the FPC. This placement machine for fiber patches was designed according to the latest state of the art for processing dry fiber and prepreg material. It perfectly complements our portfolio of placement technologies and expands our scope of research and development services.”

Prior to the installation of the system, SGL Carbon also entered into a development partnership with Cevotec. The aim is to develop innovative applications based on SGL TowPreg and using the SAMBA systems. “The SGL TowPreg tape harmonizes perfectly with our system”, reports Felix Michl, “We expect very interesting development projects, for example in the green mobility sector, aviation and medical technology”. In general, the SAMBA Pro system covers a wide range of different fiber materials that can be processed automatically for different industries.

“The FPP technology can now prove itself in direct competition with different technologies in the FPC,” Michl concludes. “Interested customers can select the optimal technology for their specific application from the technologies available in FPC, which cover the entire spectrum of automated fiber placement. This is real value added for all manufacturers looking for innovative manufacturing solutions”.

The launch began with the 812 Competizione completing several laps of the circuit to give viewers a full appreciation of the car’s forms in this dynamic and high performance context in addition, of course, to hear the unmistakeable sound of Ferrari’s iconic naturally-aspirated V12. After the hot laps Enrico Galliera, Ferrari’s Chief Marketing & Commercial Officer, officially presented the car and then unveiled the 812 Competizione A.

This duo of cars is dedicated to a very exclusive group of collectors and enthusiasts of the most noble of Ferrari traditions, which focuses on uncompromising maximum performance. The innovative technological concepts applied to the engine, vehicle dynamics and aerodynamics have raised the bar to new heights.

Powertain
The 812 Competizione and 812 Competizione A sport the most exhilarating V12 on the automotive scene and is derived from the multi-award-winning engine powering the 812 Superfast. The result is a naturally-aspirated 830 cv engine that pairs impressive power with electrifying delivery and the inimitable soundtrack that Ferrari V12 purists know well. To boost the output of the engine, which has the same 6.5-litre displacement as the 812 Superfast’s V12, several areas have been significantly re-engineered to achieve a new record red line while optimising the fluid-dynamics of the intake system and combustion, and reducing internal friction.

Aerodynamics
Two carbon-fibre side air intakes for the brakes flank the main grille, which feeds cooling air to the engine and cockpit. These intakes are square in section and are split between brake cooling and a double air curtain duct. Thanks to the latter, the charged flow that strikes the side of the bumper is channelled and used to reduce the turbulence generated by the outer part of the tyre tread, thereby improving the front downforce generated by the outside edge of the bumpers.

Vehicle dynamic
Particular attention was paid to making the car as light as possible, which resulted in 38 kg being slashed off its overall weight compared to the 812 Superfast. The areas primarily involved were the powertrain, running gear and bodyshell. Carbon-fibre was used extensively on the exterior, especially on the front bumpers, rear bumpers, rear spoiler and air intakes.

The powertrain contributions to weight reduction came from the use of titanium con-rods coupled with a lighter crankshaft and a 12V lithium-ion battery. Great attention was also paid to the design of the cockpit with the extensive use of carbon-fibre trim, lightweight technical fabrics and a reduction in sound-proofing. There are also dedicated sporty, lightweight forged aluminium rims and titanium studs.

All-carbon-fibre rims are also being made available for the very first time on a Ferrari V12 and offer a total weight reduction of 3.7 kg compared to the lightweight forged 812 Superfast wheels. The inside of the channel and of the spokes is coated in a layer of white aerospace-derived paint that reflects and dissipates heat produced by the car’s extremely efficient braking system, guaranteeing consistent performance over time even under hard use on the track.

Exterior
One of the 812 Competizione’s many striking features is its bonnet, which has a transverse groove in which the carbon-fibre blade sits. This proved an original way of disguising the air vents for the engine bay, whilst also increasing their surface area. From a design perspective, the choice of this transverse element rather than the louvres seen on some previous Ferrari sports cars, means that the bonnet looks cleaner and more sculptural. This theme also acts as a three-dimensional interpretation of the concept of livery, recalling the signature stripe across the bonnet that characterises certain historic racing Ferraris.

The modified front-end aerodynamics allowed the designers to endow the car with a more aggressive character befitting its limited-edition special status. The car’s nose shows off all of its imposing power with a very wide front grille flanked by the two distinctive and prominent side brake intakes. The carbon-fibre splitter underscores the car’s broad, squat stance, hinting at its impressive road-holding.

The most noticeable aspect of the 812 Competizione’s aesthetic is the replacement of the rear screen by an all-aluminium surface. The vortex generators on the upper surface that boost the car’s aerodynamic efficiency simultaneously create a backbone effect that underscores the car’s sculptural forms. Together with the carbon-fibre blade that traverses the bonnet, this motif changes the overall perception of the car’s volume: the car seems more compact than the 812 Superfast, accentuating its powerful, fastback look. Not having a rear screen also creates a textural continuity between roof and spoiler, providing owners with the opportunity to personalise the car even more with a whole new single continuous graphic livery that runs unbroken its entire length.

Samad’s Chief Technical Officer, Norman Wijker explains:

“CTOL trials are an essential step towards VTOL aircraft development. Ticking off the CTOL flight capability is a crucial step towards the validation of all flight modes. With CTOL trials complete, we will begin hovering trials and the flight trials will be concluded by transition between hovering flight and aerodynamic flight in both directions”

During the CTOL flight test (November 2020) the aircraft took off at a length of 250 meters, demonstrating a great potential for Short take-off and landing (STOL). Take-off and landing were smooth, and the vehicle maintained a comfortable cruise at a speed of (90 mph) airborne for over five minutes. Witnesses were amazed at just how quiet this aircraft was compared to a helicopter.

The flight tests included evaluations on aircraft flight dynamics, performance as well as handling qualities. As the e-Starling adopts a semi blended wing body (BWB) design, it requires a low angle for take-off; it is important to understand when the aircraft is capable of taking-off and at which speed.

Apart from slow and fast taxiing on the runway as well as take-off and landing; the half scale demonstrator also performed banking manoeuvres in addition to tests on yaw, pitch and roll. The results show very stable in terms of handling quality.

Among other tests of subsystems were: brake, telemetry, redundancy links, and ensuring the centre of gravity (CG) of the aircraft is at the correct design place.

The aircraft’s performance matched the predicted calculations made during preliminary and detailed design stages.

​​​​“The data provided by the flight tests were sufficient and invaluable for us to feed into fine tuning the aircraft for auto pilot to allow us to conduct a subsequent test on auto pilot mode,” says one of the engineering crew on-site.

Why a CTOL test for a VTOL aircraft? The ability to take off and land conventionally is an important part of the safety justification for VTOL aircraft, a key safety contingency.

Samad’s Aircraft Design Adviser, Professor John Fielding explains:

“Safety is key. We have investigated various safety challenges via CFD analysis and now through the flight tests using this 50% scaled CTOL prototype.”

Samad Aerospace is a disruptive green-tech start-up based in the UK. The company’s highly skilled and sought-after team of engineers are pioneering the development of the world’s fastest hybrid-electric vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft set to revolutionise civil air transportation globally. Samad Aerospace is now listed in the top 5 e-VTOL start-ups worldwide* and is regarded as an essential and key contributor to the 3rd aerospace revolution**.

Samad Aerospace has been developing its unique manned and unmanned aircraft with two scaled prototypes (10% and 20%) successfully built, flown, and showcased in reputable international air shows such as Singapore, Geneva and Farnborough.

Preparations for the e-VTOL flight tests are already well underway. 2021 will see the completion of the 50% e-VTOL version of the e-Starling.

*Start Us Insights, 5 Top Vertical Take-Off & Landing (VTOL) Start-ups, https://www.startus-insights.com/innovators-guide/5-top-vertical-take-off-landing-vtol-startups/
**Aviation 2020, The future of UK aviation, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/769695/aviation-2050-web.pdf

• Production of hybrid knitted fabric structures over a non-woven substrate
• Manufacture of unidirectional (UD) fabrics for fibre-reinforced plastics and plain knitted fabrics for thermal textiles in the mobility sector
• Reinforcement of wound dressings in the medical textiles sector.

The new machine platform comes with new features which open up new research avenues for ITA and its research partners (as depicted in figure “Biaxtronic CO opens new research opportunities”).

The possibility to feed in base substrate will allow ITA to fundamentally research applications in the field of geotextiles. The installed Karl Mayer Command System “KAMCOS” includes an ethernet interface for integration into an existing network, which fulfils the requirements for research topics in the field of Industry 4.0, inline quality control, sociology, networking of the process chain etc. The newly developed electronic guide bar control system and the possibility to vary process parameter inline will improve the product quality substantially and help in producing locally adapted tailored textiles.

ITA thrives on the development of new innovative technologies and products, which mainly result from bilateral research projects between industry and universities. Thus, with the acquisition of the Biaxtronic CO ITA is looking forward to undertake collaborative projects with national and international partners in the coming years.

This acquisition of the Biaxtronic CO is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, project number INST 222/1264-1 FUGG. ITA extends its gratitude towards the DFG and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia for their financial support.

When printing thermoplastic material, each polymer has an ideal print temperature at which the best fusion between layers occurs. This new system not only attains but precisely maintains this ideal temperature automatically.

Thermal sensor layer automation system

Called “Thermal Sensor Layer Automation”, it continuously measures the temperature of a printed layer just before a new bead is added. This allows the machine to automatically adjust the feed speed, using “Layer Time Control”, to print at, or very close to, the perfect temperature needed to achieve the best possible layer to layer fusion. This results in superior printed part quality. Until now, these adjustments relied primarily on operator skill and judgement. Now it is not only totally automatic, but also much more precise.

The new process uses a non-contact temperature sensor which rotates about the print nozzle under servo control and continuously measures the temperature of the existing layer less than a half inch in front of the moving print nozzle. This provides precise feedback of the temperature at the moment of layer fusion, insuring integrity of the bond being generated at every point on every layer.

Data from the probe is processed through an advanced algorithm which adjusts the speed at which each layer is printed. The algorithm takes into account not only the temperature at the point of printing, compared to the target temperature, but also the changing geometry of the part as it grows. Print speed is no longer defined in the print CNC program but instead, it is continuously adjusted by the LSAM control system itself during printing, in response to changes in the print environment. This is important because there is no way to know exactly what the print environment will be when you are creating a program or whether that environment will change during the sometimes lengthy print process, leaving the operator responsible for achieving and continuously maintaining print temperature. This is not a particularly easy task.

Automatic print temperature control

With Thermwood’s new system, optimum print temperature is now part of the parameters stored in the control for each polymer and is determined when the polymer is first qualified. To run a specific material using a properly equipped LSAM, it is only necessary to load a part program, specify the material and turn it on. The entire build process, including all temperature control, is then pretty well automatic.

This system achieves much tighter control of the basic print process than is currently possible and best of all, it is totally automatic, not requiring input or adjustment by the machine operator.

As a bonus, temperature data from the print process is available in several forms. A digital readout displays, real time, the current temperature reading as well as the average temperature for the layer being printed. These displays are color coded so that the operator can tell at a glance if the program is printing within temperature tolerance. When the print is complete a report is available that details the print temperature profile of each printed layer. This documentation could provide the quality control basis needed to verify more critical parts, such as flying parts on an aircraft, further expanding the capability and potential use of LSAM printing.

Real-time temperature measurement and control

There is one additional significant aspect to this new development. For the first time in extruder based large scale additive manufacturing, the temperature at the moment of layer fusion can be measured and controlled. This opens the possibility for more advanced research, focused on the very core of an extruder based print process. Research using this technology should result in a better, more thorough understanding of the print and layer fusion process that is at the very core of this emerging industry.

Thermwood believes this is a major advance in the base technology and will make large scale additive manufacturing not only better, but also practical for a broad range of new users. It makes a once complex and highly specialized process, pretty well automatic, allowing almost anyone to produce parts today that are better than the best that could be made by highly skilled experts in the past.

Retrofits available

Existing LSAM customers can also upgrade their current systems to the new Thermal Sensor Layer Automation System in the field. Please contact our Retrofit department for details.

The bottom line

With “Thermal Sensor Layer Automation” large scale composite additive manufacturing has become a valuable new production tool, suitable for a much larger segment of manufacturing applications. It is no longer exclusive to the rare few with highly specialized personnel but it now works for about anyone.

“Everybody involved has managed to make tremendous progress with the development of AMB 001, despite the challenges we have all been facing. This special motorcycle is, like our road cars, the result of beautiful design melding with modern technology to produce a bike that any collector will be proud of. We are delighted to see how much progress has been made, both on and off track and look forward to the moment when production starts for this stunning machine.”

Prototype testing is one of the most vital parts of the development process with a test motorcycle allowing the team to validate the chassis geometry, the ergonomics and dynamic behaviour. In the same way that Aston Martin’s vehicle dynamics engineers can ‘read’ a car, Brough Superior’s test rider feeds back on all areas of performance, from the overall dynamic feel of the bike to details regarding cornering, braking, acceleration and the like.
 
Commenting on the ongoing success of the development programme, Brough Superior CEO Thierry Henriette said:

“One of the key design features of the AMB 001 is an aluminium fin that runs along the full length of a carbon fibre tank, passing under the saddle and out onto the rear. The body holding the fin and supporting the saddle is one of the areas where we called on the unique knowledge of Mecano ID, who joined the project to apply specialist aerospace-quality carbon fibre skills to the exclusive AMB 001.”

While the focus of the track testing is directed at the chassis, engine bench testing takes place in parallel to streamline the development process. The AMB 001 boasts a turbo-charged engine with an output of 180 hp.

Once this testing process is complete the AMB 001 will go into production this Autumn at the Brough Superior factory in Toulouse, France.

A drone that flies over densely populated areas or the open sea has to be able to take off and land vertically, for example on an apartment complex or the afterdeck of a ship. This drains a lot of power from the battery and is detrimental to the flight duration. Fossil fuels are often used to increase aircraft range and endurance, though this is not a particularly sustainable solution. Moreover, to fly efficiently over long distances, a drone needs wings, however, fixed wing drones require additional facilities to land them, such as a runway or a net. So all in all up to now no drones have been developed that can sustainably fly long distances and still take off and land almost anywhere.

Bart Remes, Project Manager of the Micro Aerial Vehicle Lab (MAVLab) at TU Delft:

“That is why we developed a drone that can take off and land vertically using hydrogen plus a battery set, and that during the horizontal hydrogen-powered flight can recharge the battery via a fuel cell, ready for the vertical landing. The fixed-wing design and the use of hydrogen means the drone can fly horizontally for hours at a time.”

The fully electric drone weighs 13kg and has a wingspan of three metres. It is also very safe: it is powered by 12 motors so even if several motors fail, it can still land safely on the afterdeck of a ship, for example.

Sustainable
The drone is equipped with a 300 bar, 6.8 litre carbon composite hydrogen cylinder. The cylinder feeds hydrogen at low pressure to the 800w fuel cell that converts it to electricity. The only emissions are oxygen and water vapour. In addition to the fuel cell that supplies electricity to the motors, there is also a set of batteries that together with the fuel cell provide extra power to the motors during the vertical take-off and landing.

The knowledge acquired while designing the drone can be used to make aviation greener. Henri Werij, Dean of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at TU Delft:

“One of the most important aspects of this research project is the hydrogen-powered flight. Worldwide, hydrogen is seen as one of the most important contenders for achieving a green and sustainable aviation fuel.”

Maritime
Drones are already regularly used for flying over land, but flying over the sea brings many extra challenges. Wind, salt water, a moving ship with limited take-off and landing facilities, these are all dynamic conditions that put high demands on the drone. This is why the TU Delft hydrogen drone was not only tested in a wind tunnel, but also on Royal Netherlands Navy and Dutch Coastguard service vessels, sailing on the open sea off the Dutch coast.

Thanks to the combination of the wings and the hydrogen cylinder and battery, the TU Delft drone was able to stay airborne in stable flight for over 3.5 hours. These properties make the drone suitable for providing support in reconnaissance and inspection tasks.

Commander Pieter Blank:

“Introducing new technologies demands a more exploratory approach than we are used to. The current generation of young people grow up in this way of learning and experimenting, and for us they are our personnel of the future. This is why we are making every effort to work together with others to create operational applications for these technologies. As an innovator in the Royal Netherlands Navy and Dutch Coastguard service, I am proud of this cooperation with TU Delft. The development of the maritime, hydrogen-powered drone is a true technical breakthrough which has huge future potential.”

The Chevrolet Corvette Stingray has always made extensive use of composite materials in its construction, and the launch of General Motors’ new 8th generation flagship car, with a carbon fibre bumper beam and mid-engine layout, continues this strategy. With the first two years of production sold already, the TTI and Shape process is well placed to support GM’s production requirements, with the new Radius Pultrusion line delivering an annual production capacity of 70,000 parts.

TTI set up the initial process on its prototype line, and optimized fibre and fabric guide systems to feed the complex set of reinforcements into the chrome plated steel Radius Pultrusion moulds. As pultrusion places particular stresses on the reinforcement fabrics used, TTI also suggested modifications to the selected carbon multiaxials to maintain perfect fibre alignment in the part and improve production line speed. 

The highly automated bumper beam production cell installed at Shape controls a complex set of reinforcements including carbon fibres running from a creel, biaxial, triaxial and stitched unidirectional carbon fabrics – all with glass surface tissues for stabilization and a better surface finish. 

Toby Jacobson, Plastic Materials & Process Manager, Advanced Product Development, Shape, commented :

“TTI’s Radius Pultrusion provided the perfect advanced composites solution for an extremely challenging bumper beam requirement in the Corvette Stingray. With TTI providing a complete technology package of machinery, process development and exceptional technical support, the Corvette Stingray project has been a great success for Shape Corp. and TTI.”

The curved, multi-hollow carbon fibre rear bumper beam produced for the Stingray showcases Radius Pultrusion’s ability to form complex curved profiles for highly structural applications, within a compact machine space. TTI has developed this concept further with the recent launch of its ultra-compact pullCUBE pultrusion machine. At only 3.5m in length, pullCUBE is around 75% shorter than traditional machines making it a highly transportable and space-efficient option for both curved and straight section pultruded parts.

Propelled by Aerojet Rocketdyne propulsion, the DART spacecraft will be the first demonstration of a kinetic impactor: a spacecraft deliberately targeted to strike an asteroid at high speed in order to change the asteroid’s motion in space. The asteroid target is Didymos, a binary near-Earth asteroid that consists of Didymos A and a smaller asteroid orbiting it called Didymos B. After launch, DART will fly to Didymos and use an onboard targeting system to aim and impact itself on Didymos B. Earth-based telescopes will then measure the change in orbit of Didymos B around Didymos A.

DART is set to launch in late July 2021 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, intercepting Didymos’ secondary body in late September 2022. The spacecraft’s chemical propulsion system is comprised of 12 MR-103G hydrazine thrusters, each with 0.2 pounds of thrust. The system will conduct a number of trajectory correction maneuvers during the spacecraft’s roughly 14-month cruise to Didymos, controlling its speed and direction. As the DART spacecraft closes in on the asteroid, its chemical propulsion system will conduct last minute direction changes to ensure it accurately impacts its target.

In addition to providing the chemical propulsion system for the spacecraft, Aerojet Rocketdyne’s NEXT-C (NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster – Commercial) system will also be demonstrated on the mission. NEXT-C is a next-generation solar electric propulsion system designed and built by Aerojet Rocketdyne based on mission-proven technology developed at NASA’s Glenn Research Center.

Eileen Drake, president and CEO of Aerojet Rocketdyne, said:

“DART plays an important role in understanding if it is possible to deflect asteroids and change their orbits. Our chemical propulsion system will help the spacecraft reach its destination and impact its target, while our electric propulsion system will demonstrate its capability for future applications.”

The NEXT-C system completed acceptance and integration testing at NASA Glenn in February. With a in-flight test of this next generation of ion engine technology, DART will demonstrate its potential for application to future NASA missions and may make use of NEXT-C for two of the planned spacecraft trajectory correction maneuvers.

Haydale uses its patented plasma process to develop bespoke solutions with varying levels of plasma treatment and functionalisation. Properties can be adapted to develop hydrophilic, hydrophobic, carboxylic, amine and oxidative modifications to a range of materials. These modifications improve the treated material’s incorporation into advanced materials. Currently, Haydale has plasma-treated over 250 different types of material that it has characterised and fingerprinted, enabling specific properties to be targeted in future projects.

Historically, Haydale has been able to provide a functionalised process through the dry plasma HDPlas process with maximum fuctionalisation levels of 21%. The existing graphene oxide market offers a material with traditionally 25 atomic percent oxygen atoms. Graphene oxide is produced by wet chemistry processes; this has issues with scalability and the length of time to produce a batch of material taking days. Typical methods involve environmentally hazardous by-products and unstable intermediates (potentially explosive). Graphene oxide is used for batteries and capacitors as well as in flexible electronics, solar cells, chemical sensors and bio-sensing and as an antibacterial defence.

Having a stable plasma process treating extremely conductive material is challenging, especially in a commercial and scalable process. Having already achieved 21% functionalisation through its scalable process, Haydale has a sound base on which it can build to increase the surface chemistry levels by having a more effective and efficient plasma and chemistry. Having a more powerful plasma means improving the engineering solutions. This includes, but is not limited to, the electrode, gas control systems, power delivery and generation, reaction barrel and chamber and materials of construction. By refining the design and implementing novel components that are bespoke for the application, the plasma can be further enhanced.

Haydale’s primary focus in enhancing the functionalisation levels are improved chemistries, including the feed of the process chemistry and potential mixed chemistry and staged functionalisation treatments. The system operates at a vacuum; the process chemistry is bled into the reaction chamber and, once the treatment parameters are established, the plasma can be struck.

In developing the 28% treatment levels, the above system, chemistries and processing conditions all need to be balanced to ensure a stable, non-arcing and repeatable process, as well as achieving the required output. As the effectiveness of the process increases, so does the aggressiveness of the plasma. If this is not balanced with the above parameters, arcing can occur; this means a sustained spike in electrical current that could lead to a thermal plasma which could be damaging to both the reactor and the material. The main outcome of this is a less effective treatment. Current is controlled by a combination of electrical interlocks and a well-balanced process.

Nonetheless, Haydale has been able to balance all of the above and achieve a repeatable and accurate treatment of levels that are comparable of the wet chemical methods of graphene oxide production. Verified in a letter of support by the Cardiff University, 28% Atomic Percent oxygen has been measured, targeting the existing graphene oxide market. No solvents or harsh chemical treatments are used in this dry and environmentally friendly process and a scalable proven process is already used in industry. This new system can also apply to Haydale’s other properties (hydrophilic, hydrophobic, carboxylic, amine etc.) providing the same environmentally friendly, scalable process now with even more surface chemistry.

‘These projects will find direct application in achieving one of the major regional platform deliverables — the full-scale integrated composite fuselage ground demonstrators,’ explains Clean Sky Project Officer Elena Pedone. She says that ‘the primary impact will be improving the manufacturing lead time, which implies on one side a reduction in energy required for the final manufacturing phase and also a decrease in manufacturing waste. The reduced quantity of scrap material produced and lowered energy needs feed into Clean Sky’s sustainability goals. This project will also optimise the manufacturing process in terms of time and use of resources, therefore increasing competitiveness.’

Smarter ways to automate composite panel manufacture

Aircraft construction, especially for regional aircraft fuselage structure, relies heavily on the manufacture of composite panels which are typically constructed using thin and lightweight carbon fibre skins impregnated with resin (known as pre-preg) on the sides, with viscoelastic material embedded in the middle to attenuate the cabin noise. This production technique helps reduce weight, and therefore means less fuel-burn, in line with the Green Deal’s vision. But this process can also be slow and labour-intensive, posing a challenge when production rates need to be accelerated.

Clean Sky’s SMART LAY-UP project provided a cost-cutting approach to manufacturing fuselage panels within a shorter timeframe for Leonardo’s integrated cabin demonstrator for regional aircraft.

A rig with the capacity to lay down stiffened panels 4.5m long for a fuselage of up to 3.5m diameter was built. The centrepiece of the rig is an AFP machine for the pre-preg and viscoelastic material lay-up which reduces lay-up time and also produces panels with embedded acoustic insulation for suppressing cabin noise, in line with European noise reduction targets. The entire rig can be installed within a 10m x 5.5m footprint, making it convenient for multiple rigs to be set up in a manufacturing environment if needed, while also enabling Leonardo to validate the new AFP process in a representative environment for production of the panels for its fuselage demonstrators. The system has been validated for assembly of fuselage sections for structural testing and also for cabin comfort studies.

‘Six fuselage skin-stringer panels for the structural demo were fabricated using the MTorres automated fibre placement machine installed at Leonardo Aircraft’s facilities in Pomigliano d’Arco,’ says work package leader Vittorio Ascione at Leonardo. ‘The biggest challenge in the SMART LAY-UP was to implement and get a reliable and affordable automated process for the manufacturing of the hybrid fuselage demonstrator in a limited time-frame.’

Another challenge in the project was the use of a new viscoelastic material, which Eurecat project manager Angel Lagrana describes as ‘the most “unknown” aspect of the project, which put the consortium’s experience of automated composite lay-up to the test.’

Lagrana says SMART LAY-UP is a key enabler for demonstrating hybrid manufacturing: ‘Without SMART LAY-UP it simply would not have been possible to make the panels within the specified conditions.’ What makes SMART LAY-UP particularly innovative is its versatility — it can be adapted to produce various types of panels using different tools and materials that can be tailored on a case-by-case basis, enabling modular ways to lay-up, laminate, shape and ultrasonically cut the materials.

According to Ascione, it’s the teamwork — not just between humans and robots but between the various project partners, that have brought the project to successful fruition: ‘Clean Sky is actually a unique opportunity to work in the aerospace research field with applicants of different European countries and diversified businesses, making it quite easy to collaborate with universities, research centres, high technology companies and small start-ups. In SMART LAY-UP, Leonardo has actively collaborated with MTorres and Eurecat, bringing the right mixture of heterogeneous knowledge together with a very cooperative approach. This has been the key for the project’s success.’

Robotics and ultrasonic inspection for composites

Composite materials (carbon fibre reinforced polymers) and laminates (hybrid polymer-metal multilayer sandwich structures) will provide effective pathways towards lighter, more fuel-efficient aircraft. The latest passenger airliners on the horizon will likely contain up to 80% of such materials in their primary structures. However, two prominent challenges are yet to be cracked: compared to conventional aluminium alloy structures, composites are expensive to produce, and it’s harder to detect internal defects or impact damage to these materials in service.

Complementing SMART LAY-UP, ACCURATe (Aerospace Composite Components – Ultrasonic Robot Assisted TEsting) project developed an advanced prototype laser ultrasonic testing (LUT) system for optimising non-destructive inspection (NDI) techniques. These were used to inspect large hybrid and thick composite structures and structures containing acoustic damping materials (for cabin noise suppression), such as the stiffened panels of both REG IADP Fuselage Structural and Passenger Cabin Demonstrators.

A demonstrator-oriented approach

The project plan was to design, build, test and deploy a prototype cell (a type of rig) for validating component panels supplied by topic manager Leonardo, using hybrid materials technology. Validation took place at Leonardo’s site in Pomigliano d’Arco, using a combination of lasers.

The KUKA robotic system employed uses a 6 axis lightweight robot arm for deployment of the optical head, providing an unrivalled dexterity inspection solution compared to other LUT systems, since it has the ability to move on a rail track that runs the length of one side of the CFRP panel being inspected. The robot arm scan window is sufficient for the whole panel to be scanned at speeds of over 8m2 per hour with just a single fixture rotation.

Leonardo’s Ascione says that the biggest challenge in ACCURATe was ‘the implementation of a fully automatic high-speed inspection process, based on contactless no-couplant laser ultrasound technology, able to assure defects detectability comparable with conventional ultrasound by a laser power optimisation – and to do this without causing damage to the part, and with no false signals.’

Safety first

Working with lasers requires heightened safety measures, says Kyriakos Mouzakitis, Senior Project Leader at TWI Technology Centre:

‘The ACCURATe inspection system is very complex. Achieving our targets whilst maintaining the highest standards of safety has been a very challenging process requiring intricate path planning of the robot, precise calculations for laser activation and deactivation, and designing the safety guards to ensure the wellbeing of personnel.’

Currently the system is ready for installation at Leonardo’s Pomigliano d’Arco plant, where the Laser Enclosure is under construction. Looking ahead, the ACCURATe consortium has discussed the potential to form a separate venture for the commercialisation of its system, to be defined in the final year. The plan is that this separate entity (ACCURATe Ltd) will be led by KUKA systems, while other consortium partners also intend to exploit the IP developed in ACCURATe for other industries.

Putting it all together

To keep pace with demand as aviation recovers post-Covid, production and assembly rates have to play their part too. And that’s where Clean Sky’s LABOR (Lean robotised AssemBly and cOntrol of composite aeRostructures) project comes in, bringing a lean, self-adaptive approach to using small/medium sized robots that can be adapted for different assembly operations.

Currently on aircraft assembly lines involving large panels there are many recurrent operations such as drilling, fastener insertion, riveting, sealing, coating and painting. Many of these tasks can be performed using large robotic machines, but these rigs tend to be costly, rigid solutions that can mainly perform a predefined sequence of operations on a specific assembly. Such setups often require human operation, especially during drilling and riveting operations. 

LABOR developed a self-adaptive cell capable of automated drilling and fastener insertion based on robotised systems for composite structures. 

‘The robotic cell, as an innovative automated system for manufacturing processes, developed in the Clean Sky’s LABOR project, supports the integration and assembly of both the full scale Regional IADP Fuselage Structural Demonstrator and the Passenger Cabin Demonstrator,’ explains project coordinator Dr. Cristina Cristalli, Research for Innovation Manager at Loccioni Group.  

The system is capable of carrying out a range of automated functionalities, including referencing and high accuracy positioning, drilling, and countersinking of holes with several diameters of hybrid stack-ups via cooperative robots. The cell can also handle hole sealing and fastener insertion and can even inspect hole quality and fastener installation using real-time monitoring and robot speed modulation for safe human/robot coexistence. 

One of the biggest ambitions of the project, according to Dr. Cristina Cristalli, has been the use of small/medium size robots for the assembly operations of big panels in co-presence with the operator: ‘The innovative approach proposed in the LABOR project relies on this aspect, together with the concept of distributed software modules that can be arranged to perform the desired cycle of work. The adaptability of the robots is also a new feature: through the 3D measure performed by a profilometer the robot’s path is adapted based on the real position of the components to be assembled.’

LABOR provides an instant exploitation path thanks to the fact that robots can be integrated with ease into pre-existing shop-floor environments. But getting here would not have been possible without Clean Sky’s philosophy of maturing research through the construction of demonstrators. 

As the project currently undergoes final validation, results that can be potentially applied in industry beyond the LABOR work cell include smart tools for drilling, inspection, sealing and fastening in applications where similar assembly sub-operations are needed, along with applications requiring real-time workspace multimodal monitoring for human-robot collaborative work cells.

Also on display will be the P-CAM131 multi-ply computerized cutting machine (NC cutting machine). Shima Seiki’s fast, efficient and reliable P-CAM series computerized cutting machines are known for their innovative functions and Made-in-Japan quality, and boast the largest market share in Japan. P-CAM131’s multi-ply cutting capability allows up to 1 inch (33mm) of fabric or material to be cut. At JEC World P-CAM131 is shown in its most compact form, featuring a cutting area of 1,300 mm x 1,700 mm, with option for expansion. A knife sharpening system produces a sharp, strong blade every time. Strong, robust components permit quicker response times for knife movement and more accurate cutting of composites and other industrial materials.

Demonstrations will be also performed on Shima Seiki’s new SDS-ONE APEX4 design system, the fourth generation of its series and the most powerful, most efficient APEX to date. Processing speeds for programming and simulation are improved by up to 600 per cent compared to the previous-generation SDS-ONE APEX3, for quicker response especially in virtual sampling. Virtual sampling based on ultra-realistic simulation improves on the design evaluation process by minimizing the need for actual sample-making in prototyping. This realizes significant savings in time, cost and material, further contributing to sustainable manufacturing. Once a design is approved, production data can be created for both knitting machines and cutting machines.

Discover Shima Seiki team at JEC World 2020, Hall 6, Booth P28.

Located in Mulhouse and Strasbourg, in the North-East of France, Cetim Grand Est benefits from an environment favourable to technological innovation due to the nearby University of Strasbourg and Carnot MICA institute. Cetim Grand Est supports customers in their projects towards the industry of the future through various technological innovations.

Composites and plastics: focus on recycling
The global production of composites and plastics currently amounts to 10 and 350 million tons a year, respectively. These materials, which were developed on a large scale in the last century and have now become unavoidable, are struggling to find technically and economically viable recovery routes. What might once have appeared as a minor inconvenience is now becoming a threat to industrial activity.

Indeed, the predicted scarcity of non-renewable material and energy resources is leading to tighter regulations, gradually forcing the composites and plastics industries to reduce their environmental footprint. Even though the objective is the same for all, the historical context is significantly different.

The composites industry, which is not highly automated and mainly targets niche markets, produces high-value-added and long-lasting goods, made from a long or continuous fibre reinforcement (glass) and a thermosetting resin (unsaturated polyester) in nearly 90% of cases. While production waste remains more or less stable from year to year despite an overall increase in production, end-of-life waste is increasing sharply as the first generations of products designed 20, 30 or 40 years earlier (boat hulls, wind turbine blades, cladding panels, etc.) come to the end of their life cycle. The sharp increase in waste deposits is not necessarily a problem in itself.

However, given the infusible nature of the resin, landfill remains the only option in nearly 90% of cases. This percentage has not decreased for many years, despite numerous R&D efforts in this area. Technical solutions exist, but none of them convincingly overcomes the barrier of economic viability (with the exception of composites containing carbon fibre, but they represent only 4-5% of the market).

Thermosaïc and ThermoPRIME process line

This situation is no longer acceptable today. The composites industry needs to find an alternative to the thermosetting resins historically used. It is currently undergoing a transformation by innovating in the field of materials, on the one hand (for example Arkema’s Elium resins), and in materials and processes, on the other hand, by moving closer to plastics processing. In both cases, the idea is to use thermoplastic resins, which have a higher recycling potential than thermosetting resins. However, these materials will only be massively adopted once their recyclability has been proven on an industrial scale.

The highly-automated plastics industry, which is mainly aimed at mass markets, produces low-value-added and short-lived goods from thermoplastic resins. This short lifespan generates very high waste volumes every year. A material recycling channel does exist, but for the moment it only manages to capture a small part of the waste stream (around 10%). Another part of this stream is captured for energy recovery (about 20%). Thus, on a global scale, nearly 70% of waste is dispersed in nature or buried. As before, this situation is no longer acceptable at present. The plastics industry must increase the recycling rate of its resins through the use of applications with a higher added value, by approaching the composites industry in particular.

This mutual understanding between two formerly compartmentalised industries offers new waste recovery prospects. In this respect, Cetim Grand Est developed two eco-technologies that meet the upcycling expectations for these materials.

Two technologies with the same production line
Using a step-by-step thermomechanical process, this innovative process allows the continuous production – from waste – of recycled semi-finished products in the form of large-scale thermoplastic composite panels. The pre-industrial production line installed in Mulhouse’s workshop, designed in a flexible, cost-effective and versatile way, and with an “upcycling” approach, allows the recovery of various thermoplastic waste into ranges of recycled composite semi-finished products with high added value and an optimised and competitive cost/performance ratio.

Starting from the same production line, but with two different feed systems, the Thermosaïc and ThermoPRIME (Thermo Plastic Recycling for Innovative Material and Ecodesign) eco-technologies were developed to fully exploit the recycling potential of composite and plastics materials.

Thermoplastic composite waste: Thermosaïc technology
Starting from a deposit of production waste (and then end-of-life products), this technology consists in shredding the material in order to maximize its economic potential for recovery. The Thermosaïc technology  retains the intrinsic value of the initial composite material, continuously moulding these shreds by thermocompression into panels. Compared to recycling into short fibre compounds, Thermosaïc panels have significantly better mechanical properties and a high formability potential.

Thermosaïc recycled composite

Plastic or fiber waste: ThermoPRIME technology
Starting from a recycled plastic material with low added value, formulated to the specific needs of the application (controlled quality), ThermoPRIME consists in associating this polymer with continuous or long fibre reinforcements to produce continuous laminates with high durability and economic recovery potential.

ThermoPRIME recycled composite

Industrial applications
Thermoplastic composite waste recycling has already been the subject of various studies, in particular with Porcher Industries, the aim being to find ways of recovering materials such as PPS/glass with a high added value. Generally speaking, the aeronautical industry shows interest in any technology capable of recycling various production waste (up to 40% waste) resulting from stamping or thermocompression operations.

Porcher PPS/GF Thermosaïc

With the same logic of economic optimization and reducing the environmental footprint of materials, an eco-designed laptop case demonstrator made of recycled and/or bio-sourced materials is currently being developed for the fashion and luxury sector (CARATS) of the Carnot institutes.

Through the LCFC (Low Carbon Footprint Composite) collaborative project, associating Cetim Grand Est and IS2M (Institut des Sciences et Surfaces de Mulhouse) within Carnot MICA, a proof of concept was developed based on the manufacture of a material combining a recycled matrix (polypropylene) with a bio-sourced fibre reinforcement (nettle).

Example of a product thermostamped with ThermoPRIME/Thermosaïc technologies

These examples show the interest of manufacturers and academics in major subjects that meet strong societal expectations. This flexible and agile technology makes it possible to recycle all types of thermoplastics (from PP to PEEK) and reinforcements (glass, carbon, flax, etc.). It is mature enough to support industrial needs through feasibility studies, proofs of concept, specific formulations, pilot production, etc.

This article has been edited with the participation of Frédéric Ruch, PhD Team Manager, Engineering and Material, Science Polymers – Composites & Recycling, and Clément Callens, BU Manager Industry of the Future, Cetim Grand Est.

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The filament winder was designed by Cygnet Texkimp to enable Solvay to produce large sheets of composite material, or preforms, which can be moulded using Solvay Double Diaphragm Forming (DDF) technology and hot compression moulding to create exterior parts for the automotive industry, including bonnets and boot lids [hoods and trunk lids].

It is in effect a semi-automated drum winder, but unlike traditional machines of this kind, it is capable of winding fibre in a much wider range of angles, so providing customers with greater flexibility in selecting material properties within multi-layer preforms.

The winder is capable of winding at a fibre speed of up to 100 metres/min and has been built to accommodate a mandrel spanning 2.2m in length by 0.6m in diameter, which means it can produce 2m² preforms. The finished wind is sliced from the mandrel and trimmed to size using an integrated, automatic cutting unit before being transported to the next stage of processing on a dedicated transfer table.

Richard Russell, Process Engineer at Solvay, said:

“Cygnet Texkimp worked closely with us to develop a highly controlled and efficient process that removes a lot of the labour requirement and allows us to show our customers how they can produce carbon fibre prepreg quickly, cost-effectively and competitively using our resins and materials.

“For the automotive market in particular, this is a very interesting alternative way to make high-performance composite parts in medium volumes.”

The winder takes dry fibres, or tows, from an integrated, four-position driven creel, and feeds them onto an application head. The driven creel controls fibre tension throughout the process, which ensures consistent spreading despite variations in fibre speed which occur throughout the winding process.

The four tows are spread over the application head to create a 50mm wide consolidated sheet or tape onto which Solvay’s resin system is applied, immediately before it is laid onto the mandrel.

Cygnet Texkimp’s design incorporates a resin metering system to mix Solvay’s advanced resins at the point of application, and in doing so eliminates the issue of pre-mixed resin curing before application or needing to be stored under special conditions.

“Sustainability is at the very core of our business. Saving the planet cannot wait, it must happen now, and Volta Trucks wants to spearhead the rapid change in large commercial vehicles, from outdated diesel to clean and safe technological solutions.”

Full electric drivetrain
Volta Trucks aims to mitigate the environmental impact of logistics and freight deliveries that forms the commercial lifeblood of large metropolitan cities. Thanks to its full-electric drivetrain and 160-200KWh of battery power, the Volta Zero will operate for 150-200kms delivering freight and parcels across the world’s cities in a clean and efficient way.

By 2025 operators of Volta Trucks will eliminate around 180,000 tonnes of CO2 per year – the equivalent annual CO2 usage of 24,000 houses. And thanks to its the silent electric operation, the Volta Zero will also improve a city’s noise pollution and enable 24-hour usage for its operator.

Natural and biodegradable body panels
The Volta Zero will be one of the first road vehicles to use a sustainably sourced natural flax material and biodegradable resins in the construction of exterior body panels, with the cab’s dark body panels and many interior trims constructed from the natural material. The high- tech flax weave was developed in collaboration with the European Space Agency and is currently used in 16 of the world’s most competitive motor racing series.

Flax is a sustainably farmed crop where the entire plant is used; flax seeds for linseed oil, the fibres for fabrics, and any leftovers as animal feed or field fertilizer. Volta’s world-leading supplier, Bcomp of Switzerland, uses the harvested flax fibre to create their ampliTex technical fabric – a natural and fully sustainable technical fabric.

The flax fibre’s quality, yarn thickness and twist are all highly engineered, and the weave is reinforced by Bcomp’s patented powerRibs grid technology, inspired by the principles of leaf veins. The result is a fully natural, extremely lightweight, high-performance fibre reinforcement that is almost CO2 neutral over its lifecycle. The panels made with powerRibs can match the stiffness and weight of carbon fibre but uses 75% less CO2 to produce.

The flax matting is then combined with a biodegradable resin by world-class composites manufacturer, Bamd in the UK, to produce the body panels for the Volta Zero. The fully bio- based resin, derived from Rape Seed oil, creates a naturally brown coloured matting. A black natural pigment dye is added to complete its darker, technical appearance. Bamd’s revolutionary manufacturing processes aims for total recyclability of all tooling materials, including solvent-free, water-based sealers and release agents.

Advanced material properties suited to an electric vehicle
The natural flax composite offers a number of benefits when compared to carbon fibre or other similar lightweight man-made materials. Unlike the conductive nature of carbon fibre, the flax composite is non-conductive, lessening any issues of a short circuit in the event of a vehicle accident. It also offers up to three times better vibration damping.

Should an accident occur, the flax composite bends, reshapes and ultimately snaps, unlike carbon fibre that shatters, offering a flexible fracture behaviour without sharp edges. This makes the powerRibs and ampliTex composite body panels particularly suited for urban mobility, reducing the risk of sharp debris that can injure people or cause further accidents through punctures.

At the end of their useful life, flax composite parts can be burnt within the standard waste management system and used for thermal energy recovery, unlike alternative composite materials that are usually sent to landfill.

Chief Executive Officer of Volta Trucks, Rob Fowler, concluded:

“Every Volta Zero will remove tonnes of CO2 from our city’s atmospheres but we believe that sustainability is more than just tailpipe emissions, so we have taken an environmental-first approach to all material sourcing. This includes the world’s first use of a natural Flax and biodegradable resin composite in body panel construction that is CO2 neutral and fully recyclable. We will continue to strain every sinew to ensure we deliver on our mission of becoming the world’s most sustainable commercial vehicle manufacturer.”

Coal-to-carbon fiber research shows great promise to positively impact the nation’s sluggish coal industry. In 2019, U.S. coal production, consumption and employment reached their lowest levels in 40 years. These trends are likely to persist as coal continues to lose market share to natural gas and renewable generation in the electric power sector. Recent studies suggest that U.S. coal utilization for coal-to-products applications has the potential to reach utilization levels on the same order of magnitude as that of steam coal.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said:

“The researchers at UK CAER continue pushing the boundaries of innovation in support of Kentucky’s coal miners and the families who rely on them. I was proud to support UK’s team as they research coal manufacturing and its potential for good-paying Kentucky jobs. Since I joined the Senate, I’ve constantly fought for Kentucky’s coal communities. To further that mission, I used my role as Senate Majority Leader to help bring this cutting-edge opportunity to our Commonwealth. I’d like to congratulate UK CAER on this national recognition, and I look forward their continued contributions to Kentucky.”

The market for carbon fibers, however, continues to grow, driven by increased use in aerospace and defense applications as well as lightweighting of automobiles. New market growth in other high-volume applications — such as thermal insulation for buildings and materials for construction and infrastructure — also show great promise. The market for carbon fibers is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12% through 2024.

“The researchers at UK CAER continue pushing the boundaries of innovation in support of Kentucky’s coal miners and the families who rely on them…I’d like to congratulate UK CAER on this national recognition, and I look forward their continued contributions to Kentucky.” – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

The collaboration will allow two of the world’s leading carbon fiber research and development organizations to maximize their respective expertise in the field.

CAER’s Materials Technologies Group, guided by Director Rodney Andrews and Associate Director Matt Weisenberger, will lead the effort to convert a variety of coal feedstocks into carbon fibers and composites. CAER is a global leader in developing carbon fiber from a variety of sources and is home to the largest carbon fiber spinline facility at any academic institution in North America.

UK CAER is home to the largest carbon fiber spinline facility at any academic institution in North America. Photo by Mark Mahan.

CAER will be working with ORNL to optimize coal-derived pitch processing for carbon fiber and composites development. CAER will produce laboratory-scale quantities of carbon fiber to develop structure-property relationships between the feed coal material and the resultant carbon fiber to develop processing-structure-properties relationships. ORNL will collaborate with CAER in this phase of the project by using their expertise in chemistry and high-performance computing to correlate the molecular structure of coal with its processability, identifying optimum pitch compositions to fabricate carbon fibers with tunable properties.

University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto said:

“The University of Kentucky looks forward to working with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory on this important project. By leveraging our expertise and collaborating with forward-thinking partners, we can advance coal conversion and reenergize the market. As Kentucky’s land-grant institution, UK has a responsibility to encourage economic prosperity through innovation and discovery, and this is an ideal opportunity to pursue those missions. We would not be celebrating this exciting project without the strong and consistent support of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Senator McConnell was an early and fervent supporter of this work, and we appreciate his commitment to ensuring CAER remains a global leader in energy research and development.”

CAER and ORNL will also collaborate to develop process conditions for scaling up fiber production at  the Carbon Fiber Technology Facility (CFTF) at ORNL, DOE’s only designated user facility for carbon fiber innovation. The CFTF, a 42,000-square foot facility, provides a platform for identifying high-potential, low-cost raw materials including textile, lignin, polymer and hydrocarbon-based precursors. Using the CFTF, ORNL is developing optimal mechanical properties for carbon fiber material, focusing on structure property and process optimization.

“As Kentucky’s land-grant institution, UK has a responsibility to encourage economic prosperity through innovation and discovery, and this is an ideal opportunity to pursue those missions.” – UK President Eli Capilouto

The facility is capable of custom unit operation configuration and has a capacity of up to 25 tons per year, allowing industry to validate conversion of its carbon fiber precursors at semi-production scale.

ORNL will also lead efforts in materials characterization, technoeconomic analysis and technology-to-market portions of the project.

ORNL Deputy for Projects Moe Khaleel said:

“ORNL is looking forward to contributing its expertise and unique facilities to this valuable partnership in order to push the boundaries of what is possible in materials science and advanced manufacturing. By collaborating with the University of Kentucky, we will move breakthroughs to the marketplace to strengthen our economic and national security.”

CAER’s Materials Technologies Group, guided by Director Rodney Andrews said:

“Adding value to Kentucky’s and the nation’s economy has long been a hallmark of our research and outreach at the UK Center for Applied Energy Research. This coal-to-carbon fiber project allows us to continue that tradition in new and exciting ways and alongside a partner in Oak Ridge National Laboratory that is known across the globe for their innovation, discovery, and technology transfer programs. On behalf of CAER, I thank Senator McConnell for championing this work and important CAER research programs throughout his career.”

ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. DOE’s Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

The main driver of this growth was market-based mechanisms, with auctioned wind capacity in 2019 surpassing 40 GW worldwide, accounting for two-thirds of total new capacity and doubling auctioned capacity compared to 2018.

The majority of wind energy installations in 2019 were located in established markets, with the top 5 markets (China, US, UK, India and Spain) accounting for 70 per cent of new capacity. In terms of cumulative installations, China, US, Germany, India and Spain remain the top markets, collectively making up 73 per cent of the total 651 GW of wind power capacity across the world.

Ben Backwell, CEO at GWEC said:

“The wind energy sector is continuing to see consistent growth, after having unequivocally established itself as a cost-competitive energy source worldwide. Established market players such as China and the US accounted for nearly 60 per cent of new installations, however, we see emerging markets in regions such as South East Asia, Latin America and Africa playing an increasingly important role in the years to come, while offshore wind is also becoming a significant growth driver.

He added:

“Nevertheless, we are still not where we need to be when it comes to the global energy transition and meeting our climate goals. If we are to have any chance at reaching our Paris Agreement objectives and remaining on a 1.5°C pathway, we need to be installing at least 100 GW of wind energy annually over the next decade, and this needs to rise to 200 GW annually post-2030 and beyond. To do this, we need to look past competitive LCOE alone, and ensure that regulation and market design is fit for purpose to support an accelerated rate of wind power installations. This will mean stronger measures to push incumbent fossil fuels off the grid and a shake-up of administrative structures and regulation to ensure we can go out and build”.

Feng Zhao, Strategy Director at GWEC said:

“The wind energy industry is growing thanks to new innovations in business models and technology. In 2019, we continued to see more and more countries transitioning away from Feed-in-Tariffs to market-based mechanisms, as well as continued growth in the corporate PPA market. Additionally, new technology developments such as hybridisation and green hydrogen are increasingly being implemented in both mature and emerging markets to increase the share of wind and other renewables in their energy systems. If policymakers and industry stakeholders embrace these new opportunities, we can accelerate the global energy transition to never-before-seen levels”.

The Asia Pacific region was the global leader for new onshore wind installations in 2019, installing 28.1GW of new capacity, more than half of the total new global capacity. Despite a slump in Germany’s wind market, Europe still saw a 30 per cent year-on-year growth for its onshore wind market, driven by strong growth in Spain, Sweden and Greece. Emerging markets for wind in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and South East Asia also showed moderate growth in 2019, with combined installations of 4.5 GW.

Looking to offshore wind, 2019 was a record year for the sector with an impressive 6.1 GW installed and now accounting for 10 per cent of total wind installations globally. This growth was led by China, which remains in the number-one position for new offshore capacity with 2.3 GW installed in 2019. In terms of cumulative offshore wind capacity, the UK remains in the top spot with 9.7 GW, accounting for nearly one-third of the 29.1 GW of total global capacity.

The report forecasts that this growth will continue, with over 355 GW of wind energy capacity added over the next five years. This would mean that we would see 71 GW of wind energy added each year to the end of 2024, with offshore wind expanding its share of total wind energy installations to 20 per cent by that time.

This forecast will undoubtedly be impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, due to disruptions to global supply chains and project execution in 2020. However, it is too soon to predict the extent of the virus’s impact on the wider global economy and energy markets. GWEC Market Intelligence is monitoring the situation closely, and will publish an updated Market Outlook for 2020-2024 in Q2 2020.

In in-situ polymerisation, the thermoplastic RTM process, pre-shaped dry fibre preforms are infiltrated directly in the mould cavity with the reactive matrix. Thanks to ε Caprolactam’s low viscosity in molten state, the dry fibres can be wetted particularly well. Compared to duroplastic RTM, longer flow paths and a higher fibre content are possible. When the ε Caprolactam is polymerised to create polyamide 6, a composite with particularly high load-bearing capacity is formed that can be functionalised by injection moulding immediately after manufacture in the same process.

Gentle preparation of material
Servo-electric injection pistons are a proven solution for injecting the reactive components. They support particularly precise adjustment of the injection volume and absolutely synchronous injection of the two components. The recirculation common in reactive systems is deliberately avoided. The volume of monomer melted is limited to what can be processed directly. The reactive components have a particularly short residence time in the system and are not prone to residence time scatter. This in turn prevents thermal damage to the material.

A further benefit of Engel’s system comes into play in testing and technology centre operations with frequent recipe and batch changes: the residual material can be quickly removed from the system without the system needing to be flushed.
The magnetically coupled screw conveyors for feeding the solid reactive components are a new feature. They ensure reliable and process-assured feeding of the solids. The magnetic couplings are contact-free and provide a wear-free sealing to ensure that the entire material feed is evacuated.

Within the user-defined limits, the solids are continuously dosed and plasticised using an approach that is largely independent of the injection process. Up to the moment when the material is fed in, storage and conveying of the solids remain strictly separated thermally and spatially from the melting zone underneath. The vacuum above the molten material is maintained even when topping up the storage hoppers material, and this further boosts both process stability and product quality.

Compatible with all Engel injection moulding machines
Both sizes of the Engel reactive unit can be combined with Engel injection moulding machines from all series. A retrofitting option is available for injection moulding machines with the CC300 control unit. Complete control integration ensures that the entire process can be managed centrally on the machine display. Optionally, the reactive unit can be operated as a stand-alone system with its own CC300 control unit.

The range of applications for in-situ polymerisation extends from small parts with thin wall thicknesses through to large, highly stressed structural elements in lightweight automotive engineering, automotive electronics, technical moulding and sports equipment manufacturing. When overmoulding metal inserts or cables in very small structures, in-situ polymerisation can offer advantages over other processes – even without fibre reinforcement.

Trend to thermoplastic composites
The new reactive unit is available for customer trials at Engel’s Center for Lightweight Composite Technologies in Austria. At the Center, Engel is collaborating with the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria, and mould maker Schöfer, on the further development of the in-situ polymerisation process.

On account of the trend towards thermoplastic composites, this technology is increasingly shifting into the focus of lightweight engineering developers. The continuous thermoplastic material base enhances processing efficiency while at the same time paving the way for recycling composite parts. In the form of in-situ polymerisation and the Engel organomelt technology, system supplier Engel has two production-ready processes for the manufacture of thermoplastic composite parts in its product range.

Aerospace jobs and supply chains across the UK will benefit from cutting-edge research and development projects announced by the government and aerospace industry leaders.

Government grants totalling £200 million, delivered through the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) programme, will be matched by industry to create the total investment of £400 million in new research and technology, enabling ambitious projects to lift off and support the sector’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

New projects set to receive funding will include developing high performance engines, new wing designs, ultra-lightweight materials, energy-efficient electric components, and other brand new concepts to enhance innovation within the sector. A project led by Williams Advanced Engineering in Oxford, for example, will develop ultra-lightweight seat structures that will reduce an aircraft’s fuel consumption.

The funding will also secure highly-skilled jobs in the UK’s aerospace sector and will benefit companies of all sizes from Caldicot in Wales to Bedlington in the North of England. Higher education institutions will also be a part of the projects, including the universities of Nottingham and Birmingham.

The funding was announced today by Business Secretary Alok Sharma at Farnborough Connect, the virtual version of Farnborough International Airshow.

Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Alok Sharma said:

We have an incredible aerospace industry right here in the UK that defines the way aircraft are manufactured globally.

This £400 million ATI investment will help secure our world-leading position in developing new flight technology to make air travel safer and greener into the future.

The successful projects that will receive a share of the government’s £200 million grant funding through the ATI programme, and match it with their own investment, include:

• wings: the UK is the home of Airbus wing design and manufacturing. Airbus-led projects (Broughton, Filton) will drive forward more efficient wing assembly, systems installation, digital design processes and a range of innovative wing concepts including folding wing tips
• engines: Rolls-Royce-led projects will support the development of the UltraFan engine technology, which will make a step change in the efficiency and environmental performance of aircraft
• power systems: the AEPEC project led by Safran Electrical & Power UK (Pitstone) will research how new electrical power systems can lead to more efficient energy usage
• cabin systems: an Oxford-based project led by Williams Advanced Engineering will develop ultra-lightweight seat structures for air travel, reducing the weight of aircraft

Stu Olden, Senior Commercial Manager for Defence, Aerospace & Emerging Markets at Williams Advanced Engineering, said:

A key benefit for us of the ATI support has been to enable accelerated development of the 3 companies involved in the consortium.

Additionally, by developing UK technologies and innovation, the ATI programme is enabling UK-based product development and, hopefully, future jobs. For Williams Advanced Engineering it has allowed us to participate in the aerospace sector as a non-traditional supplier.

During his speech today, the Business Secretary also announced the FlyZero initiative to kickstart exploration into zero-carbon emission commercial aircraft.

The FlyZero study will receive government funding and bring together around 100 experts to tackle issues involved in designing and building a commercially successful zero-emission aircraft. The study will create a strong basis for further research and development into a wide of technologies necessary for future flight, with the aim of securing future manufacturing in the UK.

This follows the launch of the Jet Zero Council, which brings industry and government together to make net zero emissions possible for future flights. The FlyZero study will feed into the work of the Council in defining and delivering this ambition.

Gary Elliott, Chief Executive of the Aerospace Technology Institute, said:

FlyZero represents an acceleration of the UK’s ambition to lead the world in green aviation. These are challenging but also exciting times for the aerospace sector; we need to help UK companies to recover while also creating new approaches to technology development and innovation.

FlyZero will engage a team of highly-skilled engineers and technologists from across the UK to look into how to design and build a zero emission commercial aircraft, with the solid aim of securing future manufacturing in the UK.

The UK was the first major economy to commit to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, and over the past decade, the UK has cut carbon emissions by more than any similar developed country. In 2019, UK emissions were 42% lower than in 1990, while our economy grew by 72%.

Projects approved by the ATI’s rigorous assessment programme create opportunities to secure jobs in research and manufacturing across the UK as well as sharing knowledge across industry and academia.

Further background on the projects:

• Airbus projects: Wing of Tomorrow will develop new technologies and manufacturing processes to produce the next generation composite wings and help Airbus’s leading position in the single aisle market. A critical part of the programme is to develop capability to manufacture more efficient, light weight carbon-fibre wings, at a rate much higher than previously possible
• Rolls-Royce projects: UltraFan will be the most efficient engine produced by Rolls-Royce and will use less fuel and produce lower CO2 emissions. Projects funded as part of the £200 million will drive efficiency and contribute towards shared government and industry ambitions on decarbonisation
• Williams Advanced Engineering: the AIRTEK project is focused on developing lightweight seat structures for the civilian aerospace sector. Williams Advanced Engineering, in a collaboration with JPA Design and SWS Certification, is developing new lightweight aircraft seats in order to reduce the weight of aircraft, which in turn will lead to airlines saving fuel and CO2
• Safran Electrical & Power UK: AEPEC: The Aerospace Electric Propulsion Equipment, Controls & Machines (AEPEC) project involves lead partner Safran Electrical & Power UK and its supply chain partners. They will develop electrical power systems to improve energy use on future aircraft, covering power generation, control systems, and other functions on more-electric aircraft

About the Aerospace Technology Institute
The Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) is at the heart of UK aerospace R&T. Working collaboratively across the UK aerospace sector and beyond, the Institute sets the national technology strategy to reflect the sector’s vision and ambition.

The ATI Programme is a joint government and industry commitment to invest £3.9 billion in research to 2026. In addition to the ATI Programme and FlyZero, the Institute also supports the supply chain through NATEP and aerospace start-ups through the ATI Boeing Accelerator.

Further information:

• small businesses will benefit from the continuation of the National Aerospace Technology Exploitation Programme (NATEP) whose next call is scheduled for October and the launch of the next R&D call for small business scheduled for November.
• at the same time as supporting R&D activities for SMEs the Supply Chain 21 Competitiveness and Growth programme remains open for applications to help businesses improve their competitiveness.

In addition to its considerably higher cost-effectiveness, the process has the great advantage that as well as the high pressing capacity that can be achieved, temperatures above 450°can also be reached effortlessly. This means that even PEEK can be processed using this procedure, which is extremely advantageous compared with double belt presses.

The system primarily consists of six stations. The unwinding station prepares the material that is to be consolidated on rolls. This means that six layers of material can be pressed into one organic sheet. If necessary, the number of laminate layers can also be increased.

A feed table ensures the individual layers are aligned correctly and the current material usage is always calculated on the control side using incremental length measurement.

Before the actual consolidation, the material is heated in a pre-press to approximately 100°C and pre-compressed with a press capacity of 3kN. This makes it possible to also process awkwardly shaped non-woven fabric in the machine. The material is pulled semi-continuously through the press together with the separating sheets by the feeder arranged behind the press. This achieves theoretical speeds of 200mm/s. Depending on the number and thickness of the layers, up to 1.7mof laminate can be produced per minute.

The core of the machine is the heating-cooling press with a press capacity of 2,000kNm, which is fitted with a synchronized hydraulic system. This is constructed with four press cylinders with power and location control. In addition to the very high plane-parallelism of +/-0.02mm, a special feature of the design is the option of deliberately placing the heating plates in a sloping position(1.5mm/1.2m). Furthermore, the heating plates can be adjusted to six individual positions over a length of 1,200mm and thermally separated temperature zones (up to 451°C) have been installed. As a result, material-specific heating and cooling curves can be run without any problems to form the melt front in the direction of manufacture. A thickness measuring device is used for quality control purposes, which determines the precise thickness of the pressed semi-finished product at four measuring points using a laser sensor.

The final station of the machine is the cutting station, which cuts the endless material into defined pieces. Alternatively, the material can also be run with winders on a roll. All the stations are connected to each other on the control side and provide a fully automated process.

The machine, which is located at the Textile Research Institute in Chemnitz, Saxony, can process glass fibers, carbon fibers, aramid fibers, natural fibers, as well as PP, PA, PES, PPS, PEEK, PEI…or also hybrid non-woven fabrics (reinforcement fibers + thermoplastic fibers).

In addition to the testing facility described above, Rucks has supplied seven interval heating press manufacturing machines over the last few years and is currently manufacturing two further ones with a heating plate width of 1.3 maximum press capacity of 8,400kN.

VTT’s research scientists have been testing the prototype’s performance with, for example, pieces of plastic film, mixed plastic waste, various kinds of textiles and bread. In addition to recycling, the device has been used to produce long fibre composites, and it can also be utilised in food and feed processing.

Behind the idea for the novel extruder is VTT’s Research Scientist Hannu Minkkinen, who discovered that materials can rotate around the device’s hollow cylinder. The device was designed and the prototype built with funding from Business Finland’s and VTT’s funding instrument for commercialisation of research results.

“Commercialising the device would create completely new possibilities both in terms of waste processing and novel material combinations”, explains VTT’s Principal Scientist Tomi Erho.

“Many textile recycling processes are only suitable for products containing homogeneous fibres. However, textiles are often made of a mix of fibres, and many products are comprised of different layers. The new extruder opens up a revolutionary opportunity to recycle mixed textiles and materials without having to separate fibres or components. We have successfully tested the device, for example, for recycling pillows without removing the filling in the course of a project called Telaketju with funding from Business Finland”, says Senior Scientist Pirjo Heikkilä from VTT.

30-cm screw diameter
The diameter of the extruder screw determines the size of the feed throat and also the kinds of materials that the device is capable of processing. The first prototype has a screw diameter of 30 cm instead of the 3–4 cm typically found in conventional devices of the same output.

The large diameter combined with a shallow screw channel makes it possible to mix different components of problematic, porous and lightweight materials and to make the mixed mass compatible with the next stage of the production process.

Benefits compared to traditional extruders:

• Thanks to the simple design of the device, it is one of the cheapest device in comparison with traditional mixing twin-screw extruders.
• VTT’s first prototype is less than two metres long and weighs 1.5 tonnes. Thanks to its short length, the device can also be mounted upright if necessary.
• The compactness of the device makes it possible to transport.
• The design enables accurate temperature control combined with efficient mixing and, considering the size of the device, long residence time. This can be a benefit when processing materials such as food and feed.
• Long fibres can be processed without cutting them, which is useful when processing textiles, for example, or when mixing fibre composites.

Despite a slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, progress continues toward final assembly of the demonstrator inside Boom’s Centennial Airport facility in Denver.

CEO Blake Scholl said:

“The first upper skin is going onto the fuselage, and we are in the process of closing that out. The vertical tail is in structural testing, and the landing gear is getting drop-tested. So we’re basically testing every single component as it goes onto the aircraft and then doing integrated testing as well. Sometime around the end of the year, possibly early next year, we’ll be taking it down to Mojave, California. And we are still looking to be in the air next year. For safety, we have to have a long and wide runway and be based close to test airspace, so it makes a lot more sense to do flight tests in Mojave.”

Once complete, the aircraft will be officially unveiled later this summer before being prepared for system checks and ground tests—including initial slow-speed taxi trials—at Centennial. Testing will be undertaken with Mojave-based Flight Research Inc. (FRI) a training, service and support company with which Boom announced a strategic partnership in January. FRI’s supersonic T-38 will provide pilot proficiency training and will also be used for chase support during XB-1 flight tests.

Under the agreement with FRI, Boom is also subleasing part of the company’s flight line facility for an XB-1 simulator, a flight-test control room and hangar space for maintenance and support of the demonstrator.

Scholl adds:

“The XB-1 is very much informing the design of the Overture. The goal is mainstream supersonic flight for as many people as possible in as many places as possible. So we started out with a sketch of what the Overture looked like and then said, ‘OK, let’s put that on the backburner; let’s go shrink it down about one-third scale, and then go through the design, build, fly and learn cycle.’ We did this knowing that when we went through that process, we’d shift our attention back to the Overture to take everything we’ve learned from the XB-1 and use it to update and improve a richer design. So that’s exactly what’s going on.”

With a wingspan of 21 ft. and overall length of 61.5 ft., the XB-1’s proportions are similar to the slightly shorter Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the longer Douglas X-3 Stiletto supersonic research aircraft of the 1950s. The aircraft’s slender, low-drag delta wing is designed for supercruise performance and at lower speeds will generate vortex lift to allow an acceptable angle of attack for landing and takeoff.

With its small wing and complete absence of lift-augmentation devices, Boom estimates the XB-1 will have a sporty final approach/reference landing speed of around 185 kt. To handle high runway speeds, the nose landing gear is strengthened to withstand descent velocities in excess of 13 ft./sec., while the titanium main landing gear bulkheads are built to withstand impact forces of 112,000 lb. Loads will be transmitted into the composite fuselage structure, the largest part of which is a 47-ft.-long fuselage skin section.

Two-dimensional, fixed-geometry supersonic inlets are mounted close to the fuselage beneath the wing and, together with the center inlet, transition flow through subsonic diffuser duct sections to the three closely grouped General Electric J85 engines in the tail. The center inlet, which is mounted on a prominent boundary layer diverter above the aft fuselage, feeds air through a longer S-duct.

For the Overture design, which will be firmed up within 24 months, the engines will have variable–geometry inlets and be mounted farther outboard while, according to current renditions, the tail engine will feature a divided inlet with openings on either side of the aft fuselage.

The three XB-1 engines, which collectively generate 12,300 lb. thrust in afterburner, are housed in an aft-fuselage assembly made completely from heat-resistant titanium. Small movable horizontal tails are attached to the lower aft engine nacelles to provide pitch control. Boom confirms that the horizontal tail will not feature on the Overture, which will be designed with a chine and a larger, conventionally mounted delta wing. An elongated conical tail cone extends aft of the vertical fin to reduce afterbody drag, particularly during transonic flight.

Even though the XB-1 is still months from completion, Boom says the experience of designing, wind-tunnel testing and building the demonstrator has already helped guide design refinements to the Overture.

Scholl said:

“There’s a tremendous amount we have learned about aerodynamic optimization. In particular, how you balance low-speed and high-speed performance, how you trade your high-lift devices into the wing and how you balance high-speed efficiency with the ability to meet noise rules for takeoff and landing. We have better ideas on that now than we had a few years ago. [With the design of the XB-1 finished and assembly underway] the engineering center of gravity at Boom is shifting from the XB-1 to the Overture, which is due to begin flight tests in the mid-2020s. And with that we’re taking a second pass with the overall vehicle design with the Overture. There’s just a lot you can do to make the Overture better, but it will be a little while before we’re ready to unveil what’s to come. We will not be completely finalized with the Overture until we have flown the XB-1, and the calibration data we get from that deletes a lot of uncertainty. It is an enormous benefit to have flown a similar configuration demonstrator aircraft: You’ve learned where your assumptions are right and where they are wrong, and you’ve got data that you can carry forward to make sure you develop Overture the first time around.”

Brian Durrence, senior vice president of Overture development, said:

“The XB-1 is a critical step toward mainstream supersonic travel. It’s going to provide, and is providing, key technologies to help us move to safe, efficient and sustainable supersonic travel. There’s really nothing like flying hardware to take designs and working knowledge to the next level. For example, the design tools that we utilize for the XB-1 are the same tools we’re planning on utilizing for the Overture. For critical parts of the aircraft, such as the inlet, it will be great to be able to get advanced information on that and get a direct match of that performance. Then maybe we will know if we need to adjust our tools and methodology slightly in order to maximize the efficiency. It is a very important piece of the puzzle to make sure that we have the strongest tools and methodologies available and that these are backed and verified with test data. Every piece, not just the design part, of the XB-1 program is a valuable learning experience for Boom.”

Unlike NASA’s X-59 low-boom experimental aircraft, under assembly by Lockheed Martin, or the AS2 supersonic business jet in development by Aerion—which aims to use an atmospheric phenomenon known as Mach cutoff for boomless overland flight—the Overture remains point-designed for unrestricted operations over water.

Scholl concedes that low-boom technology has a future.

“[But it will be] a long time before anyone knows how quiet is quiet enough. The last thing you want to do is make a big investment in it, and then miss it by a decibel and then all is for naught. You also give up efficiency for quiet. So we are still more convinced than ever that there’s a meaningful market for transoceanic [travel] where the most important thing is efficiency and low-boom doesn’t really help you.”

Instead, as part of its drive for environmental sustainability, Boom’s noise aspiration is to meet International Civil Aviation Organization Chapter 14/FAA Stage 5 landing and takeoff noise standards with margin, which it believes will also meet the FAA’s proposed standards for new supersonic aircraft. As proposed for initial designs with a maximum takeoff weight no greater than 150,000 lb. and a maximum cruise speed up to Mach 1.8, the standards—known as Supersonic Level 1 (SSL1)—do not cover the larger and faster Overture. However, Boom expects to work with the FAA using the SSL1 standards as a starting point for establishing an individual certification basis for the Overture.

Scholl says:

“Overture will be the first new commercial aircraft to have been built with environmental and economic sustainability in mind from Day 1. [That includes] everything from the engines being designed to accept a wide variety of alternative fuels through looking at how to design the aircraft for recycling.”

Boom’s plans to work with California-based Prometheus Fuels on a carbon-neutral fuel received a boost in June when the startup received an investment from the venture-capital arm of carmaker BMW. Boom partnered with Prometheus in 2019 for the supply of fuel for the XB-1, which will be produced using a process in which CO2 is captured from the air and converted into a liquid fuel using renewable electricity.

However, hurdles still face Boom’s fuel plan.

“The biggest challenge we have with respect to sustainable fuel is that we just can’t get enough. There are a lot of promising concepts out there, but nothing that reaches industrial scale. We’ve narrowed things down a little bit, but we’re still looking at a couple [of] options”.

Although no details have been released, Boom is discussing medium-bypass, nonafterburning engines based on derivatives of current turbofans. Earlier, the company disclosed it was studying two promising candidates, one based on a military core and the other a commercial one.

Despite the debilitating impact of the coronavirus pandemic and economic slowdown, Boom remains “in a great cash position”.

Scholl continues:

“That’s allowed us to continue and, in many cases, even accelerate what we are doing. As Boeing and Airbus have retrenched, it’s created a good hunger in the supply base, and there’s more room for new entrants to actually speed up what they’re doing.”

This includes recruiting additional personnel as it shifts gears toward the Overture Part 25 certification design, as well as to open talks with more suppliers.

This agreement allows both companies to expand their efforts to advance the circular economy. Ineos Styrolution is expanding its portfolio of working with leaders in the chemical recycling industry, and GreenMantra continues to find new, innovative ways to apply its existing technology and divert plastic from landfills, while creating value-added performance polymers that serve a broad range of industries and applications.

Ricardo Cuetos, VP Standard Products, Ineos Styrolution America LLC, says:

“We are excited to announce this JDA with Greenmantra as we continue to expand our partnerships with companies across North America. It is a pleasure to collaborate with a company that shares our commitment to pursuing a circular economy and keeping valuable polystyrene material from ending up in our oceans and landfills.”

Domenic Di Mondo, VP of Technology at GreenMantra adds:

“As we launch our new technology to up-cycle waste polystyrene, we are delighted to work with Ineos Styrolution on applications for our secondary recycled styrene product. This exciting partnership aids both Ineos Styrolution in its goal of enhancing the sustainability of its products and GreenMantra in our mission to close the loop on waste PS by identifying value-creating outlets for our two product streams.”
 replacing a portion of virgin monomer feed in Ineos Styrolution’s polymerization process.

This new custom machine is particularly impressive in its ability to handle large parts and complex operations. It has a stationary bridge and a moving table to facilitate faster loading and positioning of large hardware. There are two operational modes including traditional 5-axis functionality and a secondary rotisserie operation that allows for working on tubular parts. There is an integrated tool changer that automatically adjusts for tool length offsets, providing rapid and highly accurate machining and drilling action. The machine’s programming can compensate to a tool-center-point at the tool tip, allowing for faster and more reliable setups. Also, with variable RPM up to 24,000 rotations per minute, it provides the flexibility for a variety of material processing feeds and speeds. The company’s designers use CAD software that works with the CAM software to create an easy transition between the design and part.

The ability to machine large parts in-house quickly offers a strategic cost advantage through significant risk mitigation and labor efficiencies.

Victor Montoya, General Manager of RWC’s San Diego facility said:

“We are cultivating the resources to get things done for our customers in the most cost-efficient and reliable manner possible,”

“Bringing certain functions in-house reduces risk, increases throughput, and enables greater control over quality.”

According to Babcock, the facility will employ complex testing equipment that will simulate real-world forces, helping to speed up product development cycles. At the heart of this will be a hydraulic system that enables structures to be tested more efficiently than existing technologies. The system will also recover energy between load cycles, reducing the cost of testing. Babcock said that advanced measurement systems will enable developers to understand damage accumulation and optimise blade structures using data-driven design.

“When UoE approached Babcock they were looking for specialist facilities and engineering design expertise to help get the project from research application to reality,” said Neil Young (left), a technology director at Babcock who has been involved from the project’s outset.

“At Rosyth, we had both these key requirements, which were not available anywhere else in a single location. Our focus has been to optimise the design of the reaction frame to which the composite structure is mounted, and we’ve done this in partnership with Edinburgh. The design also included upgrading the foundation design in the building to accommodate the additional loads imposed by the fatigue testing.

“Whilst we are still at the early stages of development, we are creating something that will have real benefits for all the companies using the facility in years to come.”

As well as providing UoE’s engineers with a new testbed for composites and tidal technology, Fastblade will also help fulfil the university’s commitments under the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal, which include targets to help improve digital skills across the whole of the region.

“This collaboration is an opportunity to develop a world-class engineering facility to accelerate and support the development of new efficient technologies, and will be a great benefit to the tidal energy sector,” said Professor Conchúr Ó Brádaigh, head of Edinburgh’s School of Engineering.

Babcock told that work on Fastblade will begin later in the year, with the facility fully operational by Spring 2020.

This article has been written by theengineer.co.uk, with editorial change made by JEC Group.

The grant will provide funding for the purchase of a tape slitter; vacuum table; autoclave with wireless sensors, rheometer, nitrogen generator and a heated platen press, which will be used in the development of manufacturing protocols for automated fiber placement processes for thermoplastic aircraft primary structures.

Currently, labor-intensive nondestructive inspection for quality assurance interrupts automated fiber placement processes. The proposed project will develop and demonstrate incorporation of real-time inspections with automated fiber placement processes and machine learning algorithms.

John Tomblin, WSU vice president for research and technology transfer said:

“In the current environment, there are increasing pressures facing the aerospace and defense industries to innovate with flat budgets, record-setting production rates, increasingly complex programs and an evolving workforce. Investments in emerging advanced manufacturing technologies are critical to maintain economic growth in our region. We want to thank the EDA for acknowledging the importance of the advanced manufacturing sector in South Central Kansas with this investment.”

NIAR senior research scientist Waruna Seneviratne who will lead the lab finished:

“ATLAS provides a neutral ground for manufacturers to research advanced manufacturing concepts with various machine, software and processing options. It will also educate and train student Factory of the Future engineers on advanced manufacturing concepts.”

ATLAS will be located at NIAR headquarters building on the campus of Wichita State. The first floor will house manufacturing development facilities with computer-aided simulations and analysis on the third floor.

ATLAS already has several strategic partnerships with government agencies, aircraft manufacturers, equipment suppliers, material suppliers and other universities. In addition to support from the EDA, ATLAS has received significant funding from the Office of Naval Research and State of Kansas for acquiring advanced AFP equipment, inspection systems and test systems.

“Using the Simcenter 3D AM Process Simulation solution at toolcraft will allow us to complete our additive manufacturing workflow,” said Christoph Hauck, Managing Director, MBFZ toolcraft GmbH. “Through real-world testing, we have gained confidence that the Siemens AM Process Simulation solution will assist us in ensuring quality output from our print process.”

When metal parts are 3D printed, the method used to fuse the layers of the print typically involves heat. As the layers build up, the residual heat can cause parts to warp inside the printer, causing various problems, from structural issues within the part itself to print stoppage. Issues such as these cause many prints to fail, and make getting a “first-time-right” print very difficult. Simulation of the printing process can help to alleviate many of these problems.

Siemens’ new process simulation product is integrated into the Powder Bed Fusion Process chain in the Siemens PLM Software Additive Manufacturing portfolio and is used to predict distortion for metal printing. The product provides a guided workflow to the user that allows for the assessment of distortions, the prediction of recoater collisions, prediction of areas of overheating, and other important feedback about the print process. The AM Process Simulation solution offers the ability to iterate on a solution between the design and build tray setup steps of the workflow, and the simulation step. This closed feedback loop is possible due to the tightly integrated nature of the Siemens digital innovation platform. The simulation data created feeds into the digital thread of information which informs each step of the printing process. This digital backbone enables the system to develop pre-compensated models and, more importantly, to feed those seamlessly back into the model design and manufacturing processes without additional data translation. This high level of integration is what customers need today in order to be successful in industrializing additive manufacturing.

“This solution is the latest addition to our integrated additive manufacturing platform, which is helping customers industrialize additive manufacturing by designing and printing useful parts at scale,” said Jan Leuridan, senior vice president for Simulation and Test Solutions at Siemens PLM Software. “By using a combination of empirical and computational methods we can increase the accuracy of the simulation process, feeding the digital twin and helping customers better predict their real-world print results. We have proven this over months of real-world testing with some selected first adopter companies. Providing corrected geometry and closed loop feedback can ultimately allow our customers to get better results from their additive manufacturing processes, helping to achieve that first-time-right print and realize innovation with this technology.”

The AM Process Simulation solution is expected to be available in January 2019, as part of the latest NX™ software and Simcenter 3D software.

Mike Flewitt, CEO, McLaren Automotive:

“McLaren continues to push the boundaries of supercar and hypercar development in pursuit of outstanding and unparalleled driving experiences for our customers, and the McLaren Elva epitomizes that pioneering spirit. The McLaren-Elva M1A [Mk1] and its successors are in many ways the true spiritual forerunners of today’s McLarens – superlight, mid-engined cars with the highest levels of performance and dynamic excellence. It’s fitting that the new McLaren Ultimate Series roadster – a uniquely modern car that delivers the ultimate connection between driver, car and the elements and with that new heights of driving pleasure on road or track – acknowledges our rich heritage with the Elva name.”

The new McLaren Elva is a fast open-cockpit; a two-seater with a bespoke carbon fibre chassis and body but no roof, no windscreen and no side windows. With every sensory input heightened, this is a car that exists to provide unparalleled driving pleasure on road or track.

A 4.0-liter, twin-turbocharged McLaren V8 from the same family of engines that powers the McLaren Senna and Senna GTR combines with the light vehicle weight to give the new Ultimate Series roadster performance, with high levels of acceleration, agility and driver feedback.

The low nose and pronounced front fender peaks provide visual drama and at the same time enhance forward vision. Large, carbon fibre rear fenders flow from the front of the door to the rear deck, while the height of the twin rear buttresses is minimized by using a deployable roll-over protection system.

Helmets can be worn if preferred, but the form and sculpture of the upper cabin wraps around the driver and passenger to provide a secure environment. A fixed windscreen derivative of the car is also available for most markets as a factory option.

Aero protection
A connection with the elements is integral to the McLaren Elva driving experience but that hasn’t stopped McLaren innovating, with the Active Air Management System (AAMS) to enhance driving pleasure. The system channels air through the nose of the Elva to come out of the front clamshell at high velocity ahead of the occupants before being directed up over the cockpit to create a relative ‘bubble’ of calm. The system comprises a large central inlet situated above the splitter, a front clamshell outlet vent and a discreet carbon fibre deflector that raises and lowers vertically; when the AAMS is active, the deflector is deployed at the leading edge of the bonnet outlet, rising 5.9in into the freestream to create a low-pressure zone at the vent.

The vented air is directed through a 130-degree radius, using a network of transverse and longitudinally mounted carbon fibre vanes across the bonnet outlet; distributing the airflow both in front of and along the side of the cabin further assists air management in the cabin environment. At urban speeds, when the level of airflow into the cabin means the AAMS is not needed, the system is inactive. As vehicle speed increases, the AAMS automatically deploys and remains active until speed reduces, at which point the deflector retracts. The system can also be button-deactivated by the driver.

Aesthetic and technical design in harmony
McLaren’s design philosophy intrinsically links aesthetic design and technical design, rather than separating the disciplines of design and engineering as is commonplace in the automotive industry. The AAMS is an example of the results of this harmonious approach, being integrated within the aerodynamic and cooling functionality of the McLaren Elva.

When the AAMS is inactive, the central duct is sealed, diverting air flow into the low-temperature radiators and increasing their cooling efficiency. To provide optimal packaging conditions for the AAMS, the McLaren Elva features twin low-temperature radiators (LTRs) positioned ahead of each front wheel. The new cores used in these LTRs contribute to the engine’s 804bhp power output by reducing charge air temperature and also cool the oil in the seven-speed seamless shift transmission.

In addition to housing the AAMS, the front clamshell features deep contours that guide air into a discreet duct in the leading edge of each carbon fibre door. This captured cooling air is then directed into the two rear-mounted, powertrain-cooling, high-temperature radiators (HTRs) located just ahead of the rear wheels. A second, lower duct that starts inside the front wheelarch also channels air through the bodyside to the HTRs, which are additionally fed through the visible main side intakes. Intakes on the rear of each buttress channel combustion air into exposed air filters under the tonneau, which feed the carbon fibre engine plenum.

The trailing edge of the bodywork features a full-width active rear spoiler, the height and angle of which are adjusted simultaneously to optimize aero balance. Airbrake functionality improves braking from high speeds, the range of operation varying according to whether the AAMS is active. The rear diffuser works in conjunction with the active rear spoiler. The McLaren Elva has a flat underfloor until the point by the rear axle at which the diffuser starts and increases in height to accelerate air out from under the vehicle. The diffuser features vertical ‘fences’ to guide the airflow without reducing the air evacuation path and these combine with the rear bumper side extensions to further improve the aerodynamic efficiency.

Design and driving experience

Rob Melville, Design Director, McLaren Automotive:

“Our mission with the McLaren Elva was to create an open-cockpit, two-seat roadster that delivers the most elemental of driving experiences. Formula 1-inspired shrink-wrapped volumes create a technical  sculpture that is as striking as it is remarkable, the exterior flowing into the interior in a stunning example of a new and unique McLaren ‘blurred boundaries’ design principle that has allowed us to seamlessly bring the outside in to further enhance driver engagement while remaining true to our philosophy of making no compromises.”

There is no clear demarcation between the exterior of the McLaren Elva and the interior. The uppermost sections of the carbon fibre doors simply curve over and flow down into the cabin, the light, stiff and strong composite material providing the good properties to form such enticing shapes and forms. Complementing this design feature, the buttresses behind the driver and passenger also flow into the cabin behind the seats. While ensuring the driver and passenger remain exposed to the elements, the sculpture of the wraparound upper cabin environment enhances the feeling of security and protection within a cocooned interior.

A spar of carbon fibre additionally sweeps down from between the buttresses and runs between the driver and passenger seats to support a central armrest and cradle the engine start button and the controls for Drive, Neutral and Reverse functions. The seats themselves are of a bespoke design, with a new lightweight carbon fibre shell that not only supports the head, shoulder and back area of the occupants, but works with the upper shape of the cabin. The lower area of each seat is marginally shorter than a conventional McLaren seat, allowing enough space within the footwells for driver or passenger to stand should they want to in order to enter or leave the vehicle. The seats are available with different upper and lower colors and materials, creating a contrast between the exposed upper section and cocooned lower section. Six-point race harnesses can be selected should the customer wish to use the McLaren Elva on track.

Stowage space is offered beneath the rear tonneau. Crafted from carbon fibre, the curving single-piece panel is operated manually and secured with soft-close latches. It further reduces weight at one of the highest points of the McLaren Elva. The compartment under the tonneau has space for helmets and also houses the porthole-like panels that showcase the two visible air filters – a fine example of the McLaren design principle of exposing functional engineering.

Alternatively, customers can select a Gloss Visual Carbon Fibre Body, which exposes not only the carbon fibre body panels, but also the aligned twill of the composite material. This can be further enhanced with a range of color tints. McLaren Special Operations can also develop a bespoke tint for the exterior or interior carbon fibre.

The core of the McLaren Elva is – as with every McLaren road or race car since 1981 – a carbon fibre monocoque. This state-of-the-art ‘tub’ is incredibly strong and stiff, and its inherent properties mean an open-top roadster does not require any additional strengthening as would be the case with a vehicle built from aluminum or steel. Conversely, despite its rigidity, carbon fibre is also incredibly light, helping to reduce the overall vehicle weight.

To that effect carbon fibre has also been used extensively throughout the McLaren Elva. The entire body is carbon, and McLaren has pushed the limits of the material to not only create incredible sculpted forms, but to also reduce weight. The front clamshell, for instance, is just 1.2mm thick and meets all of McLaren’s structural integrity targets – yet it forms a one-piece panel that wraps around the entire nose of the vehicle and provides a clean, uninterrupted vision without any panel joins. The body side panels, which are each over ten feet long and stretch from the front wheels, past the side intakes, around the rear tonneau cover and all the way until the active rear spoiler.

Each door is constructed entirely of carbon fibre and features a single-hinge design, mounting to the vehicle just behind the front clamshell. The doors operate in a Dihedral function, a McLaren trademark. The floor within the McLaren Elva is exposed carbon fibre, once again highlighting the weight saving throughout. Practicality is enhanced with the use of non-slip material at selective points, or bespoke floor mats if preferred.

Carbon, too, forms the core of the braking system which is the most advanced ever fitted to a McLaren road car. Each sintered carbon ceramic disc measures 390mm and takes longer to produce than a conventional carbon ceramic disc, but the resultant material is stronger and has improved thermal conductivity. This allows the front brake discs in particular to be reduced in size, benefitting unsprung mass while still maintaining performance. Cooling requirements are lessened, reducing the brake ducting needed, which further reduces weight and improves aerodynamic efficiency. The braking system was first introduced on the McLaren Senna but is enhanced for the Elva with the addition of titanium caliper pistons which save a total of 1kg across the vehicle.

The system primarily consists of six stations. The unwinding station prepares the material that is to be consolidated on rolls. This means that six layers of material can be pressed into one organic sheet. If necessary, the number of laminate layers can also be increased.

A feed table ensures that the layers are aligned correctly and the current material usage is always calculated on the control side using incremental length measurement.

Before the actual consolidation, the material is heated in a pre-press to approximately 100°C and pre-compressed with a press capacity of 3 kN. This makes it possible to also process awkwardly shaped non-woven fabric in the machine. The material is pulled semi-continuously through the press together with the separating sheets by the feeder arranged behind the press. This achieves theoretical speeds of 200mm/s. Depending on the number and thickness of the layers, up to 1.7m of laminate can be produced per minute.

The core of the machine is the heating-cooling press with a press capacity of 2,000 kN, which is fitted with a synchronized hydraulic system. This is constructed with four press cylinders with power and location control. In addition to the very high planeparallelism of +/- 0.02mm, a special feature of the design is the option of deliberately placing the heating plates in a sloping position (1.5mm/1.2m).

Furthermore, the heating plates have six individual heating zones over a length of 1,200mm. They are thermally separated and can go up to 451°C. As a result, material-specific heating and cooling curves can be run without any problems to form the melt front in the direction of manufacture. A thickness measuring device is used for quality control purposes, which determines the precise thickness of the pressed semi-finished product at four measuring points using a laser sensor.

The final station of the machine is the cutting station, which cuts the endless material into defined pieces. Alternatively, the material can also be run with winders on a roll. All the stations are connected to each other on the control side and provide a fully automated process.

The machine, which is located at the Textile Research Institute in Chemnitz, Saxony, can process glass fibres, carbon fibres, aramid fibres, natural fibres, as well as PP, PA, PES, PPS, PEEK, PEI… or also hybrid non-woven fabrics (reinforcement fibres + thermoplastic fibres).

In addition to the testing facility described above, Rucks has supplied seven continuous compression moulding system over the last few years and is currently manufacturing two further ones with a heating plate width of 1.3m and a maximum press capacity of 8,400 kN.

Borealis had previously announced to study the feasibility of significantly increasing its PP production capacity in Europe.

Borealis has taken the final investment decision to expand the capacity of its PP plant in Kallo, Belgium, by 80kt. The added capacity is expected to come on stream in mid-2020. 

Borealis also approved the start of the Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) phase for the expansion of its PP plant in Beringen, Belgium. The final investment decision on this 250-300kt expansion is envisaged by the end of 2019 and the start-up is expected mid-2022. This project would include an upgrade of the current process technology to the proprietary Borstar platform.

The capacity increases are aimed to take full advantage of the additional propylene supply coming from the new PDH (propane dehydrogenation) plant in Kallo, Belgium, for which the final investment decision was announced in October this year. Feedstock will be flowing to Beringen via an underground pipeline network, which is the safest and most environmentally friendly transportation mode. Borealis has a well-established, ongoing cooperation with various authorities and stakeholders in Flanders and Belgium, including the Port of Antwerp and Locate-in-Limburg, to support its PP growth ambitions.

“This PP capacity increase will be another significant European investment aimed at serving our European customer base. In Europe, polypropylene supply is not keeping up with increasing demand. With the market tightening and continuous application expansion for PP materials, additional investment is needed to support the growth of our customers. The synergies with the ongoing PDH project in Kallo will ensure a reliable and integrated value chain from feedstock to customers,” says Alfred Stern, Borealis Chief Executive.

“Additional capacity will support the increasing demand in flexible and rigid packaging applications, where Borealis technology and products offer enhanced properties to our customers. Additional supply is also needed to support the automotive industry, for which PP is the fastest growing polymer material,” says Maria Ciliberti, Borealis VP Marketing & New Business Development.

The Borealis PP plants in Kallo and Beringen provide sophisticated and innovative PP solutions for a wide range of high-quality applications, especially for advanced packaging, automotive and healthcare customers.

The £1.8m DMU 340 G linear machine tool arrives at the AMRC at the end of the year and will be the first of its size to be fitted with an ultrasonic-capable spindle for use in five-axis machining applications.

The specification for the machine – which has a 59 sqm footprint – has been tailored and developed with the input of Dr Kevin Kerrigan, the lead for the Composites Machining Group at the AMRC Composites Centre, helping DMG Mori create a product it is able to market.

The DMU 340 G is capable of providing improvements in composite machining, ranging from high-end luxury vehicle monocells to next-generation aeroengine lightweight fan blades. It is also capable of titanium drilling and finishing operations and working with materials of the future such as glass fibre reinforced aluminium, a glass fibre in a resin laminate interspersed with sheets of aluminium and an array of high-temperature composite materials.

The machine boasts many other features including linear motors for high accuracy and rapid motion, novel dust extraction technology, high pressure cutting fluid delivery systems, on machine inspection technology, and a multitude of industry 4.0 capabilities including wireless in-process monitoring and control technologies, enhanced connectivity and plug-in technologies to interface with the AMRC’s vast data analytics suite.

Project proposals are already in the pipeline and the machine will have applications for companies like McLaren, Roll-Royce, The Boeing Company, BAE Systems and Airbus. It also opens up opportunities in the renewables, medical and construction sectors.

On securing the machine, Kevin said: “This machine is the first of the DMU 340 G product range to have the ultrasonic assisted machining kit. It cements the AMRC’s reputation for world-leading research for capabilities in composite machining.”

The advantage of the machine’s ultrasonic capabilities is that the high frequency movements – 40,000 micro-movements per second – bring a higher degree of control of chip formation and heat within the system. The result is less damage, less waste and a better finish – which is why the technology is suited to machining hard, abrasive, brittle material like carbon fibre composites, alloys and CMCs.

Kevin said: “The ultrasonic assisted machining process is basically the same as a standard rotatory cutting tool operation, but with an added highly tuneable, micro-scale, axial motion of the cutting tool providing a secondary motion during cutting.

“It is the additional movement that has the ability to control the amount of energy supplied into the cutting interface affecting the amount of thermal energy and fracture energy associated with the process.

“The incoming machine also has linear drives which create better acceleration and change of acceleration, i.e. jerk, to push the machine really fast during 5-axis tool paths which helps when producing complex shapes at high rate whilst retaining part geometric accuracy. With this linear drive system, the machine can get up to feed rates of 90 m/min. Current feed rates, between 1 and 4 m/min, are mostly driven by the fact that the forces generated during cutting, even with rpms of over 20,000 rpm, would snap the tools if feed rates got any faster. That is a massive difference and a huge benefit to productivity.”

The machine is digital ready – kitted out with an intelligent, customisable controller that allows the machine to integrate process-monitoring techniques, providing data that can not only measure performance but also help to improve tool life.

Kevin said: “The usefulness of this is really on the process monitoring side of things. The 840D controller is considered state-of-the-art for enabling the extraction of process information, enabling machine health monitoring, shop floor connectivity and closed-loop adaptive control. It can also link to additional live retrofit process measurements that are linked to things like tool wear, damage defects on a part.

“That’s useful information that gives us greater insight into the machining operations being undertaken on complex materials.”

Borealis a précédemment annoncé la réalisation d’une étude de faisabilité sur une augmentation substantielle de ses capacités de production de PP en Europe.

• Borealis a pris la décision finale d’investissement pour augmenter la capacité de son atelier PP de Kallo en Belgique de 80 kt. Cette capacité additionnelle devrait être disponible mi-2020.
• Borealis a également approuvé le lancement de l’étude FEED (Ingénierie de base) pour l’expansion de son atelier PP à Beringen en Belgique. La décision finale d’investissement pour cette augmentation de 250-300 kt devrait être prise à la fin 2019 et la mise en service de l’atelier est prévue mi-2022. Ce projet prendrait également en compte la modernisation des procédés actuels de production de la plateforme brevetée Borstar.

Ces augmentations de capacité visent à tirer pleinement parti de l’approvisionnement supplémentaire en propylène fourni par le nouvel atelier PHD (déshydrogénation du propane) de Kallo en Belgique dont la décision finale d’investissement a été annoncée en octobre dernier. La matière première sera acheminée vers Beringen par un réseau de pipelines souterrains qui est le moyen de transport le plus sûr et le plus écologique. Borealis coopère étroitement aves plusieurs autorités et parties prenantes en Flandre et en Belgique, dont le Port d’Anvers et Locate-in-Limburg, pour soutenir ses ambitions de croissance PP.

« Cet accroissement de la capacité PP sera un nouvel investissement européen important visant à servir notre clientèle européenne. En Europe, l’offre ne répond pas à la demande croissante de polypropylène. Avec le resserrement du marché et l’augmentation continue des applications utilisant des matériaux PP, des investissements supplémentaires sont nécessaires pour soutenir la croissance de nos clients. Les synergies avec le projet PDH en cours à Kallo garantiront une chaîne de valeur fiable et intégrée, de la matière première aux clients », déclare Alfred Stern, Directeur Général de Borealis.

« Une capacité additionnelle permettra de soutenir la demande croissante en applications dans les conditionnements flexibles et rigides, domaine dans lequel la technologie et les produits Borealis offrent des propriétés améliorées à nos clients. Un approvisionnement supplémentaire est également nécessaire pour soutenir l’industrie automobile pour qui le PP est le matériau polymère observant la plus forte hausse de la demande », déclare Maria Ciliberti, VP Marketing & New Business Development Borealis.

Les ateliers PP Borealis de Kallo et Beringen fournissent des solutions sophistiquées et innovantes pour une large gamme d’applications haute qualité, notamment pour les clients des secteurs des conditionnements avancés, de l’automobile et de la santé. 

In their new study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), Aalto University researchers present a way to control the fabrication of carbon nanotube thin films so that they display a variety of different colours—for instance, green, brown, or a silvery grey.

The researchers believe this is the first time that coloured carbon nanotubes have been produced by direct synthesis. Using their invention, the colour is induced straight away in the fabrication process, not by employing a range of purifying techniques on finished, synthesized tubes.

With direct synthesis, large quantities of clean sample materials can be produced while also avoiding damage to the product in the purifying process—which makes it the most attractive approach for applications.

“In theory, these coloured thin films could be used to make touch screens with many different colours, or solar cells that display completely new types of optical properties,” says Esko Kauppinen, Professor at Aalto University.

To get carbon structures to display colours is a feat in itself. The underlying techniques needed to enable the colouration also imply finely detailed control of the structure of the nanotube structures. Kauppinen and his team’s unique method, which uses aerosols of metal and carbon, allows them to carefully manipulate and control the nanotube structure directly from the fabrication process.

“Growing carbon nanotubes is, in a way, like planting trees: we need seeds, feeds, and solar heat. For us, aerosol nanoparticles of iron work as a catalyst or seed, carbon monoxide as the source for carbon, so feed, and a reactor gives heat at a temperature more than 850 degrees Celsius,” says Dr. Hua Jiang, Senior Scientist at Aalto University.

Professor Kauppinen’s group has a long history of using these very resources in their singular production method. To add to their repertoire, they have recently experimented with administering small doses of carbon dioxide into the fabrication process.

“Carbon dioxide acts as a kind of graft material that we can use to tune the growth of carbon nanotubes of various colors,” explains Jiang.

With an advanced electron diffraction technique, the researchers were able to find out the precise atomic scale structure of their thin films. They found that they have very narrow chirality distributions, meaning that the orientation of the honeycomb-lattice of the tubes’ walls is almost uniform throughout the sample. The chirality more or less dictates the electrical properties carbon nanotubes can have, as well as their colour.

The method developed at Aalto University promises a simple and highly scalable way to fabricate carbon nanotube thin films in high yields.

“Usually you have to choose between mass production or having good control over the structure of carbon nanotubes. With our breakthrough, we can do both,” trusts Dr. Qiang Zhang, a postdoctoral researcher in the group.

Follow-up work is already underway.

“We want to understand the science of how the addition of carbon dioxide tunes the structure of the nanotubes and creates colours. Our aim is to achieve full control of the growing process so that single-walled carbon nanotubes could be used as building blocks for the next generation of nanoelectronics devices,” says professor Kauppinen.

The standard 40mm melt core has a maximum output of between 190 and 210 pounds per hour, depending on the polymer being printed, which translates to 40 – 50 feet of standard bead (0.83”x0.20”) per minute.

The new 60mm melt core has been tested with different polymers and has achieved print rates from 480 to 570 pounds per hour, which translates to well over 100 feet of bead per minute.

This higher output capability means you can print layers with 250 feet or more bead length with most polymers, opening important new possibilities for the print process.

With Thermwood’s room temperature “Continuous Cooling” print process, the cycle time for each layer is determined solely by how long it takes a particular printed polymer to cool to the proper temperature to accept the next layer.

Only by printing when the previously printed layer is within the proper temperature range can you achieve a completely solid, void free printed structure that maintains vacuum in an autoclave without a secondary coating. This is as fast as you can print a layer.

The print head output then determines how much material can be printed during the time it takes for the layer to cool. Bigger print heads mean bigger parts not faster layer to layer print time.

“This new development opens a new world of additive manufacturing possibilities” says Thermwood’s Founder, Chairman and CEO, Ken Susnjara. “This is one of the most exciting advances we have achieved to date and now we can do things we couldn’t even consider before”.

For example, Thermwood recently announced Vertical Layer Printing which allows parts to be printed that are as long as the machine table. In this process, however, the layer stack direction is along the length of the part. This works well for room temperature or low temperature patterns, fixtures and molds, however, for high temperature molds, for use in an autoclave for example, the thermal expansion (CTE) along the stack direction is as much as 20 times greater than along the bead direction. Therefore, it is desirable to print long tools with the bead oriented in the long direction, however, print heads, even Thermwood’s 200 pound per hour head, currently the largest in the industry, have been too slow for this…until now.

The high print rate of the new melt core, even when processing high temperature materials, allows the print bead to be oriented along the length of the tool, even for tools that are as long as the machine table itself.

In addition to a maximum speed, each melt core has a minimum speed at which it can continuously print. Parts with bead lengths smaller than this minimum, require the print head to move to a “Hot Hold” area where it runs at a slow maintenance speed, spilling material at a slow rate until the required cooling time has been achieved. This wastes material and means the larger melt core may not be desirable for all applications. Many tools and molds are just be too small for efficient printing with the larger core.

If a user needs both small and large parts on the same machine, the melt cores can be switched in less than a shift.

Thermwood believes the next step in this development is to address the challenge of really long autoclave capable tooling. Work in this area has already begun.

The superior manufacturing output is made possible by the introduction of a tuck under motor which creates a smaller footprint for both Super-G HighSPEED models which are used for the processing of polypropylene (PP) and high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) for the packaging market.

“Our high-speed extruder technology sets a new industry standard in terms of output per unit area thanks to the tuck under option,” said Matt Banach, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for PTi. “Our Super-G technology has set the standard for high-density manufacturing, now delivering unprecedented output per square foot.”

PTi’s Super-G SGHS3000-36D model features a vertical U-configuration and tuck under motor which reduces the machine’s footprint by more than 33% to 12-ft 8-in, compared to 17-ft 7-in for the original model. The Super-G SGHS3000-42D model is also offered with the tuck under option and offers a comparable footprint reduction and similar output gains.

The Super-G HighSPEED tuck under option is commercially available and several machines have already been installed in the U.S.

In 2017, PTi entered the high-speed extruder segment with the launch of its Super-G High-Speed Extruders which deliver significant performance advantages and overcome the limitations of competitive products. PTi’s high-speed solution delivers improved melt quality as a result of its Super-G Lobe screw technology and is offered integrated with all of its advanced G-Series Configurable roll stand configurations.

The Super-G SGHS3000-36D is equipped with a 500 hp motor and runs at a maximum speed of 1000 rpm while the Super-G SGHS3000-42D has a 600 hp motor and runs at a maximum speed of 1200 rpm. For processing of PP, the Super-G SGHS3000-36D has a production output of approximately 3,000 lb/hr.

In addition to delivering excellent melt quality, PTi’s high-speed extruders feature carbide-lined barrels and Colmonoy hard-faced feed screws versus case-hardened screws as featured on competitive models.

The Super-G high-speed extruders boast an oversized feed section which promotes higher regrind feed rates (up to +70%) along with a streamlined feed hopper with support, delivery chute, and tramp metal protection. Other key features include feed screw removal out-the-back of the unit, an easy-cleanout vent chamber, and linear bearing barrel glide support (patent pending). Special air-cooled heater and blower assemblies limit the exterior heater temperature for safety and efficiency purposes (< 110°F) versus competitive models which can be as high as 500° F.

The Super-G High-Speed Extruders are manufactured in the U.S. at PTi headquarters in Aurora, Ill.

“This Innovate UK grant will really enable us to fast track Mouldbox development, allowing the benefits to quickly feed back into any and every sector of the industry. Our objective now is smooth service execution and, as the system continues to learn, we can focus the time saved on providing our clients with exceptional service.” Mouldbox CEO, Martin Oughton

“With high performance, time critical situations and excellent quality at the heart of everything KWSP are involved in, being involved with Mouldbox is solving a big problem with fast turnaround, high quality and competitive composite tooling prices. Mouldbox has already disrupted our traditional supply chain and the potential benefit to the industry at large is huge. We’re thrilled to have been on board from the beginning.” Stuart Banyard, KWSP

“The Mouldbox concept strongly aligns with the NCC key objectives and Industry 4.0 developments. It’s great to see such creative problem-solving within the industry and we’re very pleased to be supporting them.” Garry Scott, NCC

Using their proprietary automation technology, Mouldbox are specialists in the design and manufacture of tooling for composite parts. Their unique online interface, mouldbox.com, uses the latest in deep learning to offer instant quotes for a wide variety of part designs.

ZSK has improved the TFP method through a number of patented innovations that speed up the deposition of fibres, increase versatility and streamline the design process. Process improvements include: fast fibre laying which reduces stitching time; the fibre supply unit which doubles the deposition rate and allows simultaneous deposition of different fibres; automatic switching between different materials; the ZSK pneumatic cutting system for automated cutting of wires and fibres; and advanced design code that ensures perfect repetition of results, even controlling zig-zag stitching automatically.

“The demand for lightweight materials, to improve CO2 emissions and product performance as vehicles become heavier and more complex, has never been greater but the cost of composite manufacture has remained unaffordable in all but the most specialist niche applications,” explained Melanie Hoerr, Manager for Technical Embroidery at ZSK. “Our approach using TFP breaks through that barrier by eliminating most of the manual processing and waste of conventional composite manufacture, while increasing design freedom and improving quality control.”

TFP allows the composite pre-form to be conveniently produced with a mix of fibres, such as optical or metallic materials to provide specific properties such as electrical continuity or impedance. Naked antenna wires and isolated feed wires have already been combined by this method to make up RFID components.

In addition to optical and wire components, TFP can incorporate polymers commingled with carbon fibre to be melted later during moulding to form the matrix, avoiding the need for a resin filler, accelerating the production of complex parts and improving the resin-to-fibre distribution, especially in the extremities of the mould. Current difficulties with end-of-life recycling of composites could be largely overcome by choosing appropriate polymers for re-melting to simplify separation during end of life recycling.

ZSK can either provide expertise to help automotive suppliers develop prototypes and establish new TFP facilities, or can recommend one of their network of specialist manufacturers to co-develop TFP parts. ZSK also provides ongoing manufacturing support, with both Cloud-based and off-line solutions for quality control and an Industry 4.0 solution (MY.ZSK) to connect sensors and evaluate important data from the manufacturing process.

Economical alternative to classic high-pressure processes
In 2013, KraussMaffei marketed the wetmolding process for the manufacture of fiber-reinforced plastic components, which it has subsequently continued to develop further. In the wetmolding process, a matrix material is applied in continuous strips to a flat-lying semi-finished fiber product and then pressed into shape in a mold. In comparison with known high-pressure processes (high-pressure resin transfer molding), the wetmolding process offers numerous advantages.

“The cycle time is shorter because wetting takes place outside of the mold, no preforming is necessary, and, in addition, recycled fibers can be used,” explains Sebastian Schmidhuber, Head of Reaction Process Machinery Development at KraussMaffei. 

Automation of the individual processes offers further potential reduction of cycle times. At the Competence Forum, KraussMaffei will for the first time present a fully automated solution in live production.

“Thanks to the high degree of automation, the cycle times can again be considerably reduced. At the same time, process reliability increases,” Schmidhuber continues.

The wetmolding system in the KraussMaffei TechCenter will produce a basalt-fiber test sheet for the Competence Forum. A robot equipped with needle grippers picks up the fiber mats and feeds them to the application table, where a handling robot applies the polyurethane matrix using a mixing head (MK 10-2K-RTM) and flat sheet die. The gripping robot places the mats into the mold where the molding and curing process begins. The implemented MX mold carrier with a clamping force of 8,000 kN has corresponding interfaces for metering machines, with the option to process epoxy, polyurethane or polyamide. A RimStar 8/4 RTM metering machine with polyurethane matrix is also used.

McLaren pursuit of the possible started with an extensive research process into the needs and wants of the sport’s most important stakeholders – the fans – and called upon McLaren experts in powertrain, aerodynamics, design, materials technology, data science and human performance to create a blueprint for grand prix racing.

Fast, predatory and instinctive
As with most research projects, they needed a model to work with. The car is not an end unto itself – but it does inform everything around it.
 

The predatory looks of the future

So, does it fly?
No.

Staying true to the sport’s mission to be road relevant, they don’t expect race cars to fly by 2050. Flying road cars equals more aerial congestion, more noise pollution and probably more accidents. If you think drone sightings at airports cause widescale disruption, well… you know the rest. With the emergence of high-speed underground transportation portals, such as Virgin Hyperloop One, building underground networks that shift large volumes of traffic in less time is more probable.

This is in keeping with the desires of the fans they spoke to, who believe flying race cars are the antithesis of grand prix racing. 

500 km/h superintelligent racing machines

Excitement is of greater importance to fans than engineering complexity. Thus, they expect the grand prix car of the future to still have four open wheels, drive to the rear and a human in the cockpit.

But that’s where the similarities end.

A battle of shapeshifting machines
With the exception of the drag reduction system (DRS), today’s technical regulations ban active aerodynamics – but they expect this to change. The demand for greater efficiency will see the car designed to have the capability to alter its shape to maximise its velocity.

Although this has not been on the Formula 1 agenda for several decades, current thinking suggests it will have to make a comeback in the future if the sport is to retain high-performance and the extreme speeds that fans crave, while using less energy.

“Give teams the opportunity to really push the boundaries of active aero as part of their natural car development, and suddenly you have the adoption of a technology that has the possibility to dynamically alter the outcome of a race in an authentic way as drivers battle it out,” says Rodi Basso, Motorsport Director at McLaren Applied Technologies.

Taking inspiration from nature, the MCLE features sidepods that expand and contract like the gills of a great white shark. They turn it into a 500 km/h bullet on the straights, but expand as the car enters braking zones and corners to provide stability and control.

There’s also less aerodynamic paraphernalia attached to the upper bodywork of McLaren 2050 concept car, with more downforce generated by an intricately sculpted floor and diffuser, which pulls the car in tight to the ground.

Unlocking the power of artificial intelligence
The race to build powerful AI will intensify. Breakthroughs in the understanding of the human brain could lead to the development of truly intelligent machines. Supercomputers may evolve from completing computational tasks, to successfully performing tasks like a human. Where once computers had greater raw processing power than the human brain, but lacked its emotional intelligence and overall complexity, engineers could teach computers how to think and behave like humans through neurological links.

So, what might this mean for grand prix racing?
Racing could become an incubator for the development of AI, just as it has for simulation, big data and material science. The driver of the future will receive less information from the pitwall, and rely instead on an AI co-pilot. Engineering an evermore powerful and intuitive AI will be a significant performance differentiator in grand prix racing by 2050.

The ultimate fusion of human and technology

Drivers may be connected to AI via a symbiotic link in the helmet and sensors within the race suit. The AI learns and predicts the driver’s preferences and state-of-mind. It provides real-time race strategy and key information via a holographic head-up display – but more than that – it understands the driver’s mood and emotional state, tailoring advice based on the physiological and psychological feedback it receives.

“In the future we could get to the point where human ingenuity is replaced with an AI algorithm,” explains Karl Surmacz, Head of Modelling and Decision Science at McLaren Applied Technologies. “Machine learning would see human preferences and decisions, as well as our domain expertise and instinct, captured. Take enough examples of our creative processes and outcomes, and this could be codified into an algorithm which would enable AI to make creative decisions consistent with those of a human counterpart.”

Many forecasts of the rise of truly intelligent machines paint a dystopian picture for civilisation – think I, Robot – but they believe humans and AI will co-exist and improve their existence, in the right hands of course…

MCLE features a high density battery with inductive charging capability

The big electric elephant
Speaking to Mc Laren Formula 1 fan research groups, they understood the reality that governments around the world are driving for widespread adoption of zero-emission vehicles. In the UK for example, there are plans to ensure all new cars will be ‘effectively zero-emission’ by 2040.

Therefore, they believe it’s fair to say that by 2050 grand prix racing will be all-electric.

Electric vehicles are currently winning the long-raging battle against hydrogen-powered cars, and they envisage a car with a small electric motor married to a flexible battery, with the potential to be moulded into the aerodynamic form of the bodywork. Charging technology may even become a DRS-replacement: within a defined window, the car may be able to steal energy from the one ahead, keeping fans on the edge of their seats.

In the future, complexity will lie in storing the energy, as opposed to turning the energy into motion which is currently the case. This is because when you go electric everything flips around. The motor becomes far more simple and the energy storage is where the complexity resides. Based on their research which comes on the back of McLaren Applied Technologies supplying the powertrain to the entire Formula E grid in the series’ inaugural season and supplying the battery for its Gen2 car in Season 5, they predict a proliferation of energy storage mechanisms as many development paths are explored.

They expect cumbersome plug-in power to be a short-term solution, with the cars of the future charging wirelessly, as they see with MCLE absorbing power from the ground via inductive resonant coupling. Motorsport is the perfect proving ground to prepare this technology for road use.

“Whether it will be possible in 2050 to fully charge the battery of a grand prix car from flat in less time than it takes a current Formula 1 car to complete a flying lap around the streets of Monaco is difficult to say at this stage,” posits Stephen Lambert, Head of Automotive Electrification at McLaren Applied Technologies. “But charging about 10 to 50% of the battery in around 10 to 30 seconds is conceivable.

“Charging wirelessly sees electromagnetic induction used to transfer energy through an air gap from one magnetic coil buried under the track to a second magnetic coil fitted to the car,” Lambert explains.

“When the car is sufficiently positioned for the coils to be aligned, it will induce a current in the car’s coil which feeds into the battery.”

Bodywork, wheels, cockpit
Building upon the access and proximity that fans crave from the teams in present day Formula 1, they’re revealing more driver action and emotion through the skin of the MCLE. The cockpit will be transparent, showing the driver gripping the wheel and their frenetic footwork. The driver’s emotions will be dynamically projected onto the bodywork and tyres of the car. Tyres may be also made of a self-repairing composite with built-in inductive charging coils.

Get to the heart of the action with a transparent cockpit.

Circuits will never be the same
A consistent demand from fans is for a return to longer, wider race tracks… with banking. The higher speeds of 2050 will allow that banking to be steeper and far more aggressive than anything seen before – think Monza or Fuji, only taller and more sinuous – but the enhanced aerodynamics of MCLE will also allow much tighter radii, allowing circuits to occupy a smaller footprint.

This presents an opportunity. Street races are growing in popularity, bringing grand prix racing into convenient range of the biggest urban populations – but the cars struggle to show their full potential wherever track designers are forced to build low-speed 90° corners to follow the city street plan. Adding banking to a street circuit can solve that problem – while also ratcheting up the drama as cars hammer around a 90° bend at 400 km/h.

Thrilling circuits, fierce banking and non-stop action

The corollary is that a faster lap makes space for a longer lap.

“Smart cities will give us the chance to put the track action on people’s doorsteps,” says Basso. “We’re going to see more racing take place where the fans are, as part of a continued effort to bring the show to them – and because the cars will travel at even more ferocious pace than is currently the case, it raises the possibility for race tracks to span far greater distances.

“Why confine the grand prix cars of tomorrow to the tracks of today? The Italian Grand Prix of 2050 would still run through the heart of one of the largest historical parks in Europe, but go on to scythe its way through the streets of Milan city centre, before making its way back to Monza’s leafy park.”

Charging on the go
Pit-stops are a thrilling part of Formula 1 – but with self-repairing tyres and no petrochemical fuel to replenish, there’s a risk of the pitlane becoming redundant. That’s where the E-pitlane feeds the drama. It provides the inductive charging track, on which the cars use inductive resonant coupling to give them an energy top up – and drivers must gamble on strategy. The slower they drive through the pitlane, the better the connectivity and recharge rate. Is one slow tour better than two fast passes? How precisely can they judge their speed to receive just enough charge to make the flag?

Reinventing the grandstand experience
Fans want to be immersed in the action. That’s why they imagine sections of track will be glass-walled, or even glass-roofed, allowing spectators to stand atop the track, feeling the toughened barrier shudder beneath them as fierce racing machines flash past, flat-out and mere metres away.

Black out zones
Since the days of gentlemen drivers and ride-along mechanics, sporting rules have demanded the driver drive ‘alone and unaided’. In 2050, sometimes ‘alone and unaided’ will mean precisely that.

There will be periods in the race where the driver loses AI support and comms with the team. It’s a feature, not a glitch, when the race can change in an instant and spectators get to see how good their favourites are when they’re stripped of everything but their own innate talent and ingenuity.

Gladiators of the future
Grand prix racing will remain a challenge of skill and dedication – a gladiatorial contest that produces heroes –  but the science of human performance will increasingly come to the fore.

Tyres may be also made of a self-repairing composite with built-in inductive charging coils.

Future grand prix racing will be faster. Higher speeds on the straights of course, but of greater significance, increased g-loading under braking and when cornering. This will require drivers to be even fitter than they are now and, as has been the case throughout the sport’s history, would provoke a transformation in build.

“They would need to be trained differently,” muses Michael Collier, Head of Human Performance at McLaren Applied Technologies. “Currently there is a lot of focus on speed, agility, and endurance, but not on out-and-out strength. In 2050, a driver’s training programme would be flipped on its head so that they end up getting to know the bench press and dumbbells even better. We would see a new breed of racing driver physique.”

The physique of drivers has always changed with the times, but it’s clothes that maketh the man or woman. The race overalls of the future will go from the current fireproof suit to a g-suit construction similar to that worn by aerobatic or fighter pilots, to prevent blood rushing to the extremities. Suit materials will include ortho-fabric, aluminized mylar, neoprene-coated nylon, dacron, urethane-coated nylon, tricot, nylon/spandex, stainless steel, and high strength composite materials.

“When you start talking about speeds of 500 km/h, it means drivers will have to withstand considerably more than the maximum g-force they experience now – which is in the region of 5 g,” continues Collier. “This would put them in the same bracket as fighter pilots.

“To combat this, the race suit of 2050 will adopt similar technology to that found in g-suits. It will inflate and compress a driver’s lower limbs to prevent blood from pooling in their feet and legs, ensuring the heart still has enough of the red stuff to pump around the body – especially to the brain to maintain consciousness.”

The on-board AI will interface via the helmet. It will require training, and this will depend on both the intelligence and the cognitive skills of the driver – because the AI won’t be able to learn from an erratic performer. Clarity of thought has always been a factor in grand prix racing; more so in the future.

Sentiment projection
Grand prix racing has a massive global audience and they anticipate this growing across multiple platforms. Their core research has shown an overriding desire from the fans for new technology that allows spectators and viewers to get closer to the action, with a level of interactivity that sounds like science-fiction – but in reality – relies on bio-feedback sensor technology which is on the cusp of release within the automotive market.

Fans have expressed a desire to have greater communication with the driver – going both ways. Sentiment projection is a method of achieving this, without interfering in the historic values of the sport by being too intrusive or distracting.

“We must provide a platform which rewards driver skill, but also showcases their personality and their emotions: a honed athlete hidden behind a corporate fascia just won’t cut it in 2050. We want to see gladiators,” argues Basso.

A predator stalks its prey as fans project their emotions

The translucent bodywork on the car will be keyed to the driver’s bio-feedback. When the AI senses the driver is frustrated or angry, the car will glow red. Calmness, joy and other emotions will likewise be displayed with different hues and at various levels of intensity.

“Emotion is the biggest variable that affects driver performance,” adds Collier. “In the grand scheme of things, if a driver doesn’t do any training for a week it’s not going to impact their health and fitness significantly – but from one day to the next, their emotions can change markedly and that can have a massive influence on their performance.”

Sentiment projection can, however, work both ways if fans in the grandstands are monitored by AI embedded in their HTC digital assistants as well. The hopes and fears of spectators supporting a particular driver will be reflected by the inside of the cockpit glowing a corresponding colour. Anxious that your favourite driver is being caught? Overjoyed that they’ve made a brave overtaking move? They’ll be able to feel it with you.

The esports integration
Mc Laren vision of the future imagines a stronger link between the real and the virtual, with esports drivers becoming integral to the performance of a team. The McLaren Shadow Project roster will be fully integrated into the race team. They will work as pathfinders for the race drivers, competing at the circuits ahead of the grand prix, acting as reconnaissance scouts and relaying information back to the race drivers, while feeding their virtual race data into the team’s AI to optimise strategy.

Immersive experience
The viewing environment at home will evolve as the experience becomes more immersive. More camera angles and enhanced graphical processing will offer greater choice to the fans, using technology to place the viewer on any corner or directly into the cockpit for a driver’s eye view.

The inside line on their vision for 2050
By bringing this concept to life via their unique approach to insight-led design, the McLaren Applied Technologies Design Group has exemplified their single-minded drive for technological excellence and commitment to a journey of relentless improvement that challenges convention.

It has listened to fans, sought the knowledge of the experts throughout McLaren Applied Technologies and delved into the market forces and trends of today, as well as those likely to be pertinent in the future. Through collaboration with the next generation of mobility designers, and material futures students, it has helped to devise a credible blueprint for one of the most popular sports in the world.

While it is not possible to foresee every development that will shape future innovation between now and 2050, Mc Laren vision of future grand prix racing harnesses emerging technologies with fan passion at the core of their thinking. The ultimate fusion of human and technology.

Carbon and graphite products are used whenever other materials such as steel, aluminum, copper or plastic fail due to their limited material properties like for example temperature and corrosion resistance. In addition to the CFC structured packing that has already been marketed under the Sulzer brand name MellaCarbon, the existing CFC column internals portfolio – mainly support systems – is now completed with liquid distributors, collectors and feed pipes made of Sigrabond.

“The new column internals, introduced under the brand name MellaCarbon, are as corrosion-resistant as graphite liquid distributors used to date, but are at the same time lighter, stronger, stiffer, more rigid and more temperature resistant than plastics and have lower cost than special metals. An innovative connection system enables the realization of larger diameters and allows cost efficient production,” explains Ralph Spuller, SGL project manager for the cooperation project.

In recent months, more than 30 new CFC liquid distributors have been designed, manufactured and commissioned for industrial applications – often with the associated MellaCarbon packings, support grids and feed tubes. This is the first time that a complete family of CFC based column internals has been made available to customers of the cooperation partners worldwide. The often-difficult combination of materials, especially for corrosive applications, is no longer necessary.

“Paper honeycomb” process for lightweight and stable components
The customer is a supplier of China Railway, a state-owned Chinese railway company, and also delivers products to companies from the aviation and commercial vehicle industries. They plan to use the extended system for producing lightweight interior cladding on the basis of the “paper honeycomb” process. In the process, two glass-fiber mats sprayed on with PUR are pressed against an intermediate paper honeycomb layer and then cured in the presence of heat. The finished component is characterized by a low weight and a high level of stability and bending stiffness.

The composite press, which, as all other BBG systems, was entirely produced at the company’s headquarters in the Unterallgäu region in the South of Germany, comes with two mold mounting plates, which are 2,000 mm in width and 1,400 mm in depth and can be swiveled at the same time. The swing angle of the upper and lower plates is 40 degrees each at a parallel stroke of 500 mm. The drying cycle takes ≤ 38 s. You may use molds with a total weight of up to 11,000 kg, the press and locking force amounts to 4,000 kN.

The hydraulic unit with a capacity of 2,500 l is mounted on a platform above the press in order to save space. Since the rear side of the press affords easy access, a robot can be used to feed material into the press mold from the rear. The finished component is subsequently removed from the front. 

Van Dam Custom Boats
In 2017, Van Dam Custom Boats celebrated 40 years of craftsmanship. This family business was founded in Michigan by married couple Steve and Jean Van Dam. Trained as a wooden boat builder in the early 1970’s, Steve is one of those on board early in the use of epoxy as a part of wooden boatbuilding in North America. The company is still using the finest materials and the latest in technology when designing and manufacturing its hand-crafted boats. A vessel from Van Dam Custom Boats is always the only one of its kind.

Classic design with superior engineering
When classic wooden boat designs are incorporated with highly evolved engineering, the finished product is strong and beautiful. A naval architect in his own right and son of founders Steve and Jean, Ben notes that the company has never intended to build a production model and looks past the fact that there are cheaper, faster and less structurally sound methods of building boats. 

High-performance core materials 
The cold molded process used at Van Dam Custom Boats affords owners a strong, lightweight vessel that is watertight and impervious to rot or cracking from swelling. Van Dam boats are built so that the raw wood never has to interact with, or react to, the element of water.

“We build a variety of sizes and types of cold molded wooden boats and have had a relationship with Diab for over 10 years”, says Steve Van Dam. “When we have had an application requiring a structural core, our go-to product has been Diab’s Divinycell core material. We have used this product between wooden skins, and also with carbon fiber or glass fiber in certain applications.”

Sunray – a motor yacht made of mahogany and core material
The construction of the stunning 50′ Motor Yacht Sunray, designed by Michel Berryer of Van Dam Custom Boats, began during the fall of 2015. Classically styled with a nod to vintage 1960’s watercraft, Sunray sports a beam of 13′ 6″. The boat will be built from mahogany with a displacement of 35,000 lbs. A core material is used in key areas such as the cabin and wheel house, allowing for a lighter boat that still has a beautiful wooden finish.

“For Sunray, we will be using the HM80”, says Ben Van Dam, “primarily for insulation in the Florida sun but also as a structural component between wood skins in the cabin sides and top.”

A 450 gallon fuel tank feeds two Cummins 8.3 L-600 HP diesel engines that give Sunray a speed of more than 35 knots. Sunray is full of custom details such as inlaid with SS Mahogany trim and a double wide helm seat. It is also equipped with a complete Garmin navigation package, including two big screen displays and autopilot, a Seakeeper 6 gyro stabilizer, a full galley with state-of-the-art appliances. It features plenty of fresh water tankage for a hot shower in the beautifully detailed head compartment and underwater lighting for that night time swim off her teak swim platform.

In the 17th century, several 100,000 hectares of hemp were cultivated in Europe. In competition with cheaper cotton and the decline of sailing shipping in the 19th century, the area under cultivation decreased continuously, but even in 1850 130,000 ha were still cultivated in France and 140,000 ha in Italy. When the synthetic fibres came up in the 20th century, hemp no longer played a role in the post-war reconstruction and many countries banned cultivation due to its proximity to the sister plant marijuana. As a result of these developments, European hemp cultivation collapsed on about 5,000 hectares in France in 1990.

The reintroduction of industrial hemp took place in Great Britain in 1990, a few years later in the Netherlands and Germany and finally throughout Europe. After a short hype on 20,000 ha, the area under cultivation fell again to about 8,000 ha in 2011. But then it really started. After 26,000 ha in 2015, 33,000 ha in 2016, the area under cultivation increased to about 43,000 ha last year. The growing areas are mainly driven by demand in the food sector. Healthy hemp seeds have arrived in the mainstream and can be found today in almost all European supermarkets pure, in muesli, in chocolate and many other products. Hemp seeds can be processed into drinks and yoghurts like soy. There is no end in sight to the rising demand.

Further momentum came with the launch of the non-psychotropic cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD), which has mild calming and focusing effects. It is obtained from the leaves and flowers of hemp. Here, too, demand is high, but cannot be met sufficiently due to a patchwork of national regulations. While discounters in Switzerland successfully sell CBD cigarettes, concentrated CBD is a prescription drug in other EU countries.

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is approved as a medicine in virtually all European countries and is produced by the pharmaceutical industry in greenhouses. Here, too, has been strong growth.

Hemp fibres are used in large quantities for lightweight construction in the automotive industry, in insulating materials and for thin, tear-resistant papers (cigarettes and bible papers). The shives, the woody part of the stem, are used as building material and animal litter.

However, it is not only in Europe that industrial hemp enjoys considerable demand. Even before Europe, a dynamic hemp food industry with steady growth developed in Canada. In 2016, 34,000 ha of hemp were cultivated in Canada and in 2017 even the new record of 56,000 ha was achieved. This year the cultivation of industrial hemp will start in the USA, where an additional 50,000 hectares are expected in the next ten years.

And also in China, the mother country of industrial hemp, hemp is being reintroduced, especially for the textile industry, in order to relieve cotton production and perhaps even replace it later. In the northeast of China, there are large programs to introduce enzymatically treated hemp fibres into the textile industry. The Chinese automotive industry also uses hemp fibres for lightweight construction. The total area under cultivation has increased from 40,000 ha (2016) to 47,000 ha (2017).

After hemp had almost completely disappeared after the Second World War and with the worldwide cannabis prohibition as a cultivated plant, today in Canada, China and the European Union about 150,000 hectares are cultivated again – within a few decades the limit of millions can be reached!

The worldwide growing hemp industry meets every year in Cologne (Germany) for the “International Conference of the European Industrial Hemp Association”, this year on 12 and 13 June already for the 15th time. As last year, about 350 participants from 40 countries are expected. The conference will present and discuss the latest developments from all areas of the hemp industry – from seeds to the end product, and 20 exhibitors present their technologies and products. The conference is sponsored by the gold sponsors Canah (Romania), HempFlax (The Netherlands), Hempro Int. (Germany) and MH medical hemp (Germany). Further sponsors are REAKIRO (USA) (silver sponsor) and CBDepot.eu (Czech Republic) (bronze sponsor).

And another highlight awaits the participants of the conference: For the first time ever, an innovation award will be presented for the “Hemp Product of the Year”. Three products each from the areas of food, cosmetics and biocomposites are available (see collage). Participants select the winners per category based on a short introduction of the products. The award winners will then be ceremoniously announced at the evening dinner buffet. The innovation award is presented by the nova-Institute, sponsored this year by the company HempConsult from Düsseldorf.

The worldwide meeting place of the hemp industry is organised by the German nova-Institut in close cooperation with the European Hemp Association “European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA)”. The day before the conference, EIHA will host expert workshops for members, meet representatives from Canada, USA and China and hold its Assembly in the evening.

Discover all nominees of the Innovation Award “Hemp Product of the Year 2018” here.

The newly developed rebar system is suited for manufacturing fiberglass-reinforced rebar for concrete elements in the construction industry. Together with the first pultrusion system of the TechCenter – an iPul system for flat sections – KraussMaffei now offers its customers a research environment to develop and test new processes and applications in pultrusion.

Growth market in pultrusion

“Pultrusion is a simple way to produce cost-effective profiles, there are hardly any turnkey offers and it is a growth technology. In addition, we are knowledgeable about fibers, metering technology and associated process technology,” as Sebastian Schmidhuber, Head of Development for Reaction Process Machinery at KraussMaffei, states, explaining the motivation of KraussMaffei to enter the pultrusion market a year ago.

The result of the most recent development work is the iPul system that was launched in 2017, which opened up new applications in pultrusion with significantly higher production speeds than the usual conventional tub or pull-through processes. Therefore KraussMaffei is now expanding its TechCenter to include a second pultrusion system, a rebar system to manufacture pultruded rebar.

“Together with the first iPul system, a flat profile system, we offer our customers a comprehensive and globally unmatched range of research and development opportunities in the field of pultrusion,” Schmidhuber said.

Major potential in construction industry
Pultruded rebar based on epoxy and reinforced with glass or (conceivably) with carbon fiber offers an enormous potential in the construction industry.

“They are corrosion-resistant compared to classical steel reinforcements. Therefore, the overlaying concrete layers can be considerably thinner,” Schmidhuber explains.

Further advantages include the low weight and consequently cheaper transport, the easier handling at the construction site and the fact that the fiber-reinforced rebar can be produced endlessly and wound onto drums at the end of the pultrusion system. Typical application areas are in infrastructure, for example, in bridges or in road construction or in environments susceptible to corrosion in functional buildings.

To date, finding a means of efficient production has been point of failure of an implementation suitable for series production.

“The classic production speeds for rebar in the conventional tub or pull-through processes are still at relatively low haul-off speeds, in some cases under 0.5 m/min. With the new iPul system, we are aiming at up to six times faster speeds in our TechCenter and therefore offer a cost-effective alternative to conventional steel reinforcements,” Schmidhuber said.

KraussMaffei works closely with Evonik, which has specifically developed an ideally suited epoxy resin for this application. Additional partners are Thomas Technology (radius pultrusion) and Alpex (mold technology).

Flat section systems for window construction and wind power
The development of solutions for the rebar application again meets industrial competency, orientation toward efficiency, and worldwide marketing. This concept has proved itself with the first pultrusion system in the TechCenter at KraussMaffei, an iPul system to produce flat sections. Here KraussMaffei collaborates intensely with companies such as Covestro in the field of new window profiles that are polyurethane-based. With the new iPul system and the significantly higher production speeds, the process is already getting closer in efficiency to established technologies, which opens entirely new markets for this technology. An additional research partner for this system is Huntsman. Here both companies work on the development of pultruded reinforcement elements for particularly large-format robot blades in wind turbines. 

One-of-a-kind combination
In pultrusion, continuous fibers, usually of glass, carbon or aramide, are infiltrated with a reactive plastic matrix and formed to the desired profile in a heated mold. Grippers pull the cured profile continuously and feed it to a sawing unit. The new iPul system by KraussMaffei encompasses, together with the technology partners, the entire sequence. It revolutionizes the technology – which has been common for a long time – in two respects. It encapsulates the soaking of the fibers, which so far mostly takes place in open tubs, in an injection box, which permits the use of fast-reacting systems (epoxy, polyurethane). It also increases the production speed from the usual 0.5 to 1.5 m/min to approximately 3 m/min

“Vericut 8.1 includes new modules and enhancements that simplify simulating a CNC machine,” said CGTech Ltd. Managing Director Tony Shrewsbury. “This release is all about various tools that can increase NC programmer efficiency, reduce production time, and detect costly errors before going to the shop floor.”

Teamcenter interface module
Vericut Tool Manager imports 3D cutting tools from Siemens Teamcenter Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software. Vericut connects directly to Teamcenter to reference files, avoiding the need to create external uncontrolled copies of models on a local or network drive. In the NX CAM project, all cutting tools used in a given project are listed.  In one step, all 3D cutting tools for a job are imported at once.

Grinder-dressing module
Vericut enhances support for grinding and dressing operations. Users can simulate dressing where a secondary tool is applied to a grinding wheel to freshen the grinding surface, or to change the grinding wheel cutting shape. Vericut simulates the dynamic compensation needed while the dresser is used, even while the grinder is engaged with the part.

Force optimisation
Vericut’s Force module is a physics-based NC program optimisation method that maximises chip thickness. Force creates more constant cutting forces resulting in significant machining time savings. Graphs and charts are displayed in real-time, revealing cutting conditions and forces as they are encountered by cutting tools. The data helps NC programmers identify undesirable cutting conditions represented as spikes in the graphs. Spikes display forces, chip loads, tool deflection, and material removal rates above the recommended parameters.

With one click on the chart, the exact location in the NC program is marked. Simultaneously, the actual cut in the graphics window is displayed. By optimising toolpath feed rates, Force reduces machining time, prolongs tool life, and produces a higher quality finished product.

Enhanced sectioning
Vericut’s new section window is easier and faster to see inside a part during simulation. This allows the user to check proper fit, and identify interference between the workpiece and machine components. Sectioning abilities in machine view help with complicated machines where visibility is challenged. Enhancements allow the simulation to be continued while sectioned, and zoomed to achieve unobstructed viewing to pinpoint highlighted errors.

X-Caliper dimensions
The X-Caliper measuring tool creates a measurement label on the part, and label placement is customisable for optimal viewing. Multiple dimensions can be displayed on the part to quickly document key measurements, create setup diagrams, or inspection aids. Images with dimensions are easily referenced in Vericut reports.

Improved report template
Vericut’s report template editor makes creating a custom report easier. Adding content directly to the report editor is simplified using standard word processing capabilities. The enhancements allow the use of standard HTML objects, and the template editor displays what the report will look like as the template is designed, which also shortens the design process.

Vericut 8.1 also includes a new additive module, which simulates both additive and traditional CNC machining capabilities applied in any order.

Between 1993 and 1996, the cultivation of industrial hemp was legalised in most EU member states, others followed later. In 2011, the cultivation area decreased to its lowest value since 1994 (ca. 8,000 ha), but increased continuously in the years 2012 to 2016, to finally reach more than 33,000 ha in 2016. Today, the cultivation area for industrial hemp covers the largest area since the second world war.

The European Industrial Hemp Association expects almost constant or moderately growing cultivation areas in the next years. The main cultivation areas are in France, the Netherlands, the Baltic Countries and in Romania. In recent years, many new European countries started or expanded their hemp cultivation, mainly to produce more hemp seeds for the health food market. In the last years, hemp food products have entered the mass consumer markets via supermarkets in Austria, Germany, The Netherlands and more countries.

But also the hemp fibre sector is expanding, covering the increasing demand of the automotive industry. European hemp fibres are the only natural fibre worldwide with an established sustainability certification.

Investments and market growth are especially high in non-psychotropic hemp extracts and for the Cannabinoid CBD, which is used in pharmaceutical applications as well as in the food supplement industry. Here, a patchwork of regulations in Europe is a barrier for faster market growth.

Conducting in-depth interviews across the world with more than 160 respondents, including automotive suppliers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and engineers, the research identifies future industry trends and ensures Huntsman’s new product development and innovation programmes are tailored to meet its customers’ needs.

The results show that CO2 emissions and fuel efficiency regulations are key drivers for the use of lighter weight materials, but affordability and the long-term availability of carbon fibre are stopping more manufacturers from using composites in mass production.

According to respondents, fibre-reinforced composites will become more widely adopted by the premium and sports automotive sector over the next ten years and will likely reach mainstream car segments in the longer term. The development of electronic cars will also influence the use of composites, as manufacturers look to develop lightweight and more energy-efficient models.

“Carrying out this survey was a key investment into understanding the dynamics of the automotive industry, and allowed us to gain valuable insights that can channel our innovation funnel towards technical solutions needed by the industry. Thanks to the detailed responses of our customers, we can better understand the drivers and challenges that they face in using composites. For example, according to the results, a lack of understanding around how best to design with composites is an important factor in fibre-reinforced plastic composites not reaching mass production scale,” comments Nastassja Kelley, marketing director EMEAI, at Huntsman Advanced Materials.

“By gaining a deeper knowledge of what the sector is looking for, we can look at shaping our new prproduct development strategy and the guidance we’re able to offer, to ultimately feed our innovation pipeline.”