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Lanxess' Tepex dynalite used in FuPro project

13 Dec '19
3 min read
Pic: LANXESS AG
Pic: LANXESS AG

Lanxess’ endless fibre-reinforced thermoplastic composite material Tepex dynalite has been used extensively in the FuPro project under the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The material has made a major contribution to its success. The project meant to achieve process, structural and functional integration for reducing weight of vehicle structures.

At the international trade fair for mobility 4.0 “eMove360° Europe” in Munich, Germany, the project received the Gold Materialica Award in the “Surface & Technology” category. FuPro stands for “Design and process development for functionalised multi-component structures with complex hollow profiles”.

In the project’s innovative fibre composite modular system, organic sheets, fibre composite hollow sections and injection molding compounds were combined to form highly integrative multi-component structures. Using the case of a belt integral backrest the high application potential of the technology was demonstrated. The organic sheets used are made from the semi-finished product Tepex dynalite 102-RG600 based on roving glass fabric and a polyamide 6 matrix. The Lanxess subsidiary Bond-Laminates in Brilon, Germany, manufactures these very lightweight yet highly resilient fibre composite semi-finished products.

The Materialica Award was also presented in 2014 and 2017 for products in which the innovation leader Tepex was used. In both cases, the corresponding components are now being employed in series production.

In FuPro, an interdisciplinary team from industry and science developed a novel technology that integrates continuous fibre composite hollow profiles into hybrid organic sheet metal injection molding structures. The project involved the Institute for Lightweight Engineering and Polymer Technology (ILK) at Dresden Technical University and Brose Fahrzeugteile as well as companies including Arburg, Aumo, Ditf Denkendorf, Elring Klinger, gwk, Schmalz, PHP Fibers and Werkzeugbau Siegfried Hofmann.

The objective of the FuPro research project was to develop and analyse a novel, large-scale production process for multi-component structures made from complex fibre-reinforced plastics (FRP) hollow profiles, organic sheets and injection molding compounds. The aim is to achieve a level of process, structural and functional integration that goes far beyond classic design methods and results in significant weight reductions in vehicle structures.

Lightweight design is a key technology that is an essential prerequisite for resource-efficient mobility. Highly integrative multi-component engineering methods are particularly promising for the realisation of highly loadable lightweight structures. In addition, the use of FRP allows the individual components to be optimised according to the force flow. Thermoplastic FRP are predestined for mass production applications in the automotive industry, since cycle times of less than one minute are usually achieved in component production.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (SV)

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