GREEN-TOOLING

Industrialisation of self heated composite tooling based on Tailored Fibre Placement Technology

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Composite materials are starting to be used extensively in many industrial applications. This is the case for example of the transport (automotive, rail and aeronautic), marine, wind energy and construction industries. New developments such as textile preforming combined with liquid moulding technologies together with recent automation developments will support this tendency. Although it seems that composite manufacturing technologies are already mature, actually they are not. The main bottle neck of composite materials lies in the productivity. Long cycle time associated to thermosetting resins is hindering a higher penetration in high volume sectors. And long cycle times are associated with the high energy consumption required to keep the whole mould mass at the curing temperature throughout the curing process (usually 2 to 6 hours plus heating and cooling). GREEN-TOOLING addresses these issues by developing an advanced system for improving the heating step associated to most composite manufacturing processes. The main objective of the project is to develop self heated tooling (moulds and membranes) for the composites manufacturing industry in a robust and automated process. The thermal energy will be provided by a resistive layer, manufactured by Tailored Fibre Placement (TFP) technology, which will be embedded inside the mould or the membrane during its manufacturing process. The following applications will be demonstrated: - Membranes for aeronautic repair - Membranes for preforming - Membranes for infusion - Rigid tooling for RTM process Currently, the companies involved in GREEN TOOLING proposal, together with other RTDs and SMEs, are about to complete EMBROIDERY Collaborative Project (FP7, 262355). This project is devoted to the industrialisation and the search of new applications for the Tailored Fibre Placement (TFP) technology. One of the work packages of EMBROIDERY deals with the development of self heated moulds and membranes for composite manufacturing'

Introduzione (Teaser)

While composite materials made of polymer matrices and reinforcing fibres have become somewhat ubiquitous, they still face a barrier to more widespread uptake. Scientists plan to expedite processing time with self-heating technologies.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

The curing process for thermosetting resins requires a long time in the mould. This also consumes a significant amount of energy. The EU-funded project 'Industrialisation of self heated composite tooling based on tailored fibre placement technology' (http://www.green-tooling.eu/ (GREEN-TOOLING)) is pushing advances attained in the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) project EMBROIDERY to commercialisation.

Tailored fibre placement (TFP) is an innovative technology developed in the 1990s in the garment industry. It can be used in composites manufacturing to control placement of resistive fibres to facilitate self-heating. GREEN-TOOLING scientists are targeting four applications.

Adapted heating elements for curing composite repairs and self-heated membranes for preforming will support manufacturing and repair of carbon fibre components for aerospace. Self-heated composite tooling will aid in large-scale assembly line (series) manufacturing of auto and aerospace manufacturing. Self-heating moulds should be welcomed by the wind energy and ground transport sectors.

Overall, the TFP technologies will dramatically decrease cycle times and energy consumption in composite manufacturing and repair. The first project period was spent preparing for validation tests of the technologies given the chosen applications.

Scientists have produced tailored thermal blankets with resistive fibres placed carefully according to the aircraft or wind energy parts to be repaired. Engine air inlets will be used to showcase the use of self-heated membranes in preforming complex carbon fibre parts. Preliminary trials have been conducted with small-scale specimens to evaluate the processing conditions.

Researchers evaluated the robustness and durability of the self-heated composite tooling to determine whether or not they achieve series production standards. Having selected the application, a prototype mould was designed and produced. It will be used in validation trials in the coming months.

Demonstration of the self-heated membrane for fusion applications has been simplified by selection of a wind mill blade for which the required tooling is already available. The main requirements for processing as well as the validation plan have been defined.

Software support tools to aid in design for the resistive circuit have been created and the website is up and running. Within the next period, the team plans to begin validation of the four new technologies exploiting TFP for expediting composites production.