According to the company, this could make it easier to more precisely predict the properties of parts made up of multiple materials and more quickly develop high-performance components.
UD tapes are intermediate base materials in tape shape that are made by embedding fibers such as carbon fibers in unidirectionally aligned fibers of such thermoplastic resins as polyamide 6 and polyphenylene sulfide. Continuous fibers have improved rigidity and strength, and enable welding to other thermoplastics. Taking advantage of these features and optimally arranging UD tapes in injection-molded products makes it possible to create multi-material structures that maximize weight savings while constraining costs, Toray said.
However, laying UD tapes on injection-molded products makes it hard to accurately analyze strength and impact properties, which is vital for multi-material structures.
Toray focused on improving its 3D Timon injection molding computer-aided engineering system to more accurately reflect jointing strength between materials and materials fracture behavior.
Toray also created a coupled analysis technology for resin flow and impact properties that factors in the fiber orientation of injection molding materials. That technology combines analyses of various phenomena and calculates their interactions. This work resulted in the company’s accurate new analysis technology, which helps to accelerate the structural design of multi-material structures. Toray will reportedly help reduce weight and energy consumption by deploying this technology in mobility and industrial applications.
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