Harper International, a specialist in custom thermal processing solutions for advanced materials and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have been awarded funding to improve the analysis of critical processing factors, such as temperature, gas flow and chemical reaction, in carbon fiber production equipment.
The project, entitled ‘Development and Validation of Simulation Capability for the High Capacity Production Carbon Fiber’ has been set up to ensure that designs provide the necessary uniformity to produce fiber of a certain quality, output and cost ideal for automotive applications. The results will then be validated at the pilot scale equipment designed and installed by Harper at ORNL’s carbon fiber technology facility, followed by testing in a commercial production facility.
The funding came from the US Department of Energy Advanced Manufacturing Office’s HPC4Mfg program. The rogram was designed to spur the use of high performance supercomputers to advance US manufacturing via public-private partnerships.
This story is reprinted from material from Harper, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
