Pultrusion specialist Thomas Technik & Innovation (TTI) plans to display its way of producing affordable carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) parts in high-enough volumes for the mainstream automotive industry at JEC World.
The company will be exhibiting a carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) bumper/fender, 100,000 of which could reportedly be manufactured each year using the company’s Radius-Pultrusion process, which enables the manufacture of curved and coiled profiles.
‘In the normal pultrusion process you have a mold that is stationary and two grippers or a caterpillar that pull the fibers through a heated mold,’ said TTI sales engineer Sebastian Mehrtens. ‘In our Radius-Pultrusion process, we move the mold.’
The mold grips incoming resin-impregnated carbon fiber material at the upstream end of the line, then moves downstream through a curve, curing the profile as it proceeds towards a stationary gripper. The gripper stays open as the cured profile is pushed through it towards an automated cut-off saw, and only closes when the mold reaches it. The gripper holds the cured profile in place while the die opens and returns upstream to pull and cure the next length of curved material.
This story uses material from TTI,with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
