AZL, located at RWTH Aachen University, was launched in 2013 as a hub for developing mass production technologies for lightweight composite components.
| The tremendous expertise of AZL in production technology and materials science will take us a major step forward. |
| Joachim Beyer, Chief Technology Officer, Schuler |
The Schuler upstroke press with a force of 1,800 tonnes will serve as a joint R&D platform for the large-scale testing of new dies, lines, components and automation technologies.
The collaboration with AZL will help Schuler enhance its press technology and production processes for composite materials, which are becoming more widely used in the automotive industry. Schuler will focus in particular on the areas of high-speed resin transfer moulding (RTM), wet pressing and thermoplastics processing.
With a bed size of 2800 mm by 1800 mm, the Schuler press will help AZL to develop manufacturing processes for the production of parts with industry-typical dimensions.
“For example, we can produce large car body panels fully automatically,” reports Dr. Michael Emonts, AZL's CEO.
“Schuler’s composite press gives us the capability to link individual processes into complete process chains and then enhance the part systems correspondingly.”
