The traditional markets for glass fiber-reinforced thermoplastics remain stable. Thermoplastic composites are gaining fast with 3D-printing and hybrid processing techniques. The fiber composite industry is tackling the recycling issue with pragmatic ideas.

The Oechsler Drivematic drive actuator can be integrated into the 3D-printed CFRP monocoque frame of an Arevo „e-bike“

The Manifold New Collection of Reactive Systems and Thermoplastic Composites

Glasfasern / -matten

Kunststoff Werkstoffe

Verstärkungsstoffe

Reaktionsharze

Duroplaste

Kohlenstofffasern / -matten

Sekundärfasern

Kunststoff-Rezyklat

Fasern

Halbzeuge und Zwischenprodukte

Kunststoff-Halbzeuge

Verbundwerkstoffe / Werkstoffverbunde

Aramidfasern

Harzsysteme für Composite-Herstellung

Phenolharze

Harzwerkstoffe

Andere Werkstoffe

Werkstoffe für additive Verfahren

Harze, Epoxid

Duroplastische Werkstoffe

Faserverbundwerkstoffe

Hochleistungskunststoffe

Thermoplaste

Fiber-Reinforced Plastics

To meet stringent flame retardancy demands of areas such as transportation and electronics, components based on thermosets increasingly require a soluble, non-powder flame retardant (FR) due to low layer thicknesses in the final product or due to liquid processing methods. Two flame-retardants developed by Clariant meet these requirements.

16:9

20:7

Completely Halogen-Free Flame Retardancy of Epoxy-Fiber Composite Components

Füllstoffe für Kunststoffe

Flammschutzmittel

Additive

Avoiding Filter Effects of  Flame Retardants

This article describes a production process for environmentally friendly and resource-efficient molded parts consisting of innovative wood chip plastic composites (in German: Holz-Kunststoff-Verbunde, HKV).

HKV in a density-specific materials comparison

Produktentwicklung(sprozess)

Qualitätsmanagement

Development of a production process for environmentally friendly and resource-efficient molded parts consisting of load-appropriate reinforced wood-plastic composites

Thermosets are being increasingly used for packaging electronic devices, and offer good properties for this application. Direct overmolding of the components is particularly interesting here. However, achieving a successful product requires striking a balance between processability, thermal conductivity and reproducibility.

In direct packaging,  the electronic devices or components are directly overmolded with the molding compound 

Thermoset Injection Molding of Packages for Electronic Devices

Spritzgießen

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Verfahren

Elektronik

Kunststoff

Bauwesen

Baustoffe

Duroplast-Spritzgießen

Direct Packaging of Components

Avient Corporation, Cleveland, OH/USA, presents Gravi-Tech density-modified thermoplastics that enable advanced metal plating surface treatments to deliver both the look and feel of metal in premium packaging applications.

“These metallization-ready grades give premium packaging manufacturers a simpler way to incorporate the luxurious look and weight of metal into their products,” said Matt Mitchell, director, global marketing of Specialty Engineered Materials at Avient

Metallization Grades for Luxury Packaging

Experts and researchers from Halle-Wittenberg in Saxony-Anhalt, Bayreuth, Nanchang and Zurich have managed to produce unique polymer fibers that are distinctive for being extremely resilient while also very lightweight.

Drawn a multifibrillar polyacrylonitrile fiber

Faserverarbeitung

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Maschinen und Komponenten

Lehrstühle und Institute

Dienstleistungen

Hochschulen

Polyacrylnitril

Werkzeuge für Faserverarbeitung

Werkzeuge für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

Scientists from Saxony-Anhalt Create Super Polymer Fibers

Optics play an increasingly important role in plastic components. Glossy and even surfaces are decisive for an attractive appearance. With glass fiber-reinforced polyamides (PA), these requirements can usually only be achieved with an additional coating. A PA specially developed for surface design offers an alternative approach.

For visible components, an even, glossy surface is often desired, which is often difficult to achieve with glass fiber-reinforced PA. PA Grivory G7V from EMS now solves this problem

Aliphatic High-Performance Polyamide for Plastic Surfaces

Polyamide

Oberflächentechnik

Kunststofffasern

Glossy Components without Painting

Thermoplastic tapes are expected to shape the next generation of thermoplastic composites. This calls for highly accurate tape stacking. Engel contributes this technology to achieve a breakthrough by combining high-precision control software with camera technology in tape stacking.

For high production efficiency, a tape stacking unit is best equipped with two robots and one camera station

Software-Based Tape Stacking with the Aid of Camera Technology Paves the way for Thermoplastic Composites

Anlagen zur Composite-Herstellung

UD-Tapes

Kameras

Fertigungsautomation

Bildverarbeitung

Automatisierungstechnik

Optische Mess- und Prüfverfahren

Qualitätssicherung

Qualitätssicherung Kunststoff

An Eye for the Essential

Carbon fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRP) are being used in more and more components. Their production is also becoming more and more effective. In the event of damage, however, business continues to be carried out manually. For this reason, greater automation is desirable when repairing CFRP. Automated laser processes could be one way of doing this.

Stepped scarfing on slat demonstrator: scarfing is a challenging step in CFRP repair

Automated Repair of Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Plastics

Laserschweißen

Verbindungstechnik Verfahren

Thermisches Fügeverfahren

Lasertechnik

Laser Substitute Manual Work

Threaded inserts ensure a secure connection of hybrid components. Under continuous load, effects can occur with thermoplastics due to pressure and temperature, which means that a durable screw connection is no longer guaranteed. Such effects can be prevented by thread inserts with a special surface structure.

Metal thread insert with surface structuring on both sides prevent settling behavior of thermoplastic polymers in multi-material components

Structuring of Surface Ensures Reliable Anchoring of Thread Inserts in Organic Sheets

Automotive

Kunststoffe

Photonik

Optik

Reduced Settling Behavior in Multi Material Components

A number of examination methods can be used to identify weaknesses caused by incorrect fiber orientation. In particular, the fiber volume content and fiber distribution permit conclusions to be drawn regarding the stiffness and tensile strength behavior. A new ultrasound method offers the flexibility to capture these parameters on the finished component.

Ultrasound coupling: a shear wave probe contacts a glass fiber-reinforced plastic test specimen via a viscous couplant

Methods for Determining the Fiber Orientation in Reinforced Plastics

Ultraschall-Sensoren

Messtechnik

Sensoren / Messwertaufnehmer

Computer-Tomografie-Systeme

Werkstoffprüfung

Optische Mess- und Prüftechnik

Ultraschallprüfgeräte

Röntgenprüfgeräte

Software für Optische Messtechnik

Groundbreaking Ultrasound  Shear Waves

Many people have good ideas and intentions. Few have the courage and determination to put them into practice. The young rezemo entrepreneurs Julian Reitze and Stefan Zender are one successful example. In 2019, some three years after their start-up was founded, the company was already producing well over one million compostable coffee capsules per year.

Sawdust and wood shavings from the woodworking industry, PLA as a binding agent – the recipe for ecologically compatible coffee capsules

A Start-up Produces Organic Coffee Capsules Made of Wood and Plant Starch in Millions

Biokunststoffe

Holz

Successful with Wood

Thermoplastic injection molded parts can be reinforced with local continuous fibers in combination with metallic load application elements. This also makes them suitable for structural applications such as transverse control arms and transmission mountings. A 3D winding technology was tested for potential use in a large-scale production process.

Robot-based fiber winding of complex injection molding inserts. The complex contours cannot easily be draped with flat reinforcing semi-finished products

Local Continuous Fiber-Reinforcement through 3D Skeleton Winding Technology

Leichtbau

Industrieroboter

Montagetechnik

Three-Dimensional Fiber Skeleton

A Chinese supplier provides a number of international auto makers with high-quality long fiber-reinforced thermoplastics in pellet form. A key factor in this success has been the use of novel compounds and the development of custom material solutions. The company therefore invests heavily in research. When it came to producing the pellets on an industrial scale, it opted for German-made pultrusion technology.

Designed to local spatial constraints: the LFT pultrusion line installed at HCJH is about 30 m long and produces up to 1 t of LFT pellets per hour for delivery to customers in the automotive and other industries

Thermoplastics Converter in China Relies on LFT Technology from Germany

Pultrusion

Long Fiber-Reinforcement  for Automobiles

In addition to excellent mechanical characteristics and suitability for recycling, the key feature of hybrid lightweight structures made of fiber-reinforced thermoplastics is that automated, large series production is possible. New mold and process technologies were successfully developed within the scope of the ReLei research project, enabling the production of complex shaped sandwich elements in an efficient combined process.

In the ReLei project, several research and industry partners developed a rear shelf based on a fiber-reinforced polyamide as an example for manufacturing a complex sandwich structure

Thermoplastic Sandwich Structures for Large Series Applications

Schaumspritzgießen

Spritzgießwerkzeuge

Spritzgieß-Sonderverfahren

Making It Big with Small Bubbles

Brick buildings, 2850 km of pipes and Riesling

The BASF site in Ludwigshafen, with its 35,000 employees, resembles a small self-contained town. Almost all the plants are connected via a large piping system and produce various materials for wide-ranging industries as well as plastics. The Kunststoffe editorial team took advantage of an on-site visit to gain exclusive insights into the Creation Center, R&D laboratories, technical center and the steam cracker.

To get an impression of this, the world‘s largest chemical company, take a tour of the 10 km² site. Buses, bicycles, cars and mopeds traverse a 106-km road network. Although 16 modern diesel locomotives shunt along the 230-km long rail network, many self-driving tank wagons also cover the stretches. Three S-Bahn stations within the company premises transport employees to their workplaces at one of the 200 or so factories. A four-kilometer-long port is also a key cog in the logistics chain.

Right from the start, provisions were made for employees’ well-being: The Feierabendhaus (social/recreational center) has been hosting cultural events since 1913. The extensive grounds also house four canteens, a medical center and a kindergarten. There are also several shower houses (previously, employees‘ family members were allowed to shower there). However, the really head-turning items are the large tanks, 2850 km of piping and the numerous columns (process engineering systems, configured as a slender column and used to separate compounds by thermal processes).

Impressions from the Creation Center and Production:

Creation Center: Ideas Workshop on a Bunker Roof

From the BASF perspective, the Creation Center is the gateway to the world of performance materials. As well as excelling in design and materials expertise, it offers support in simulation through to advanced prototyping. In material consulting workshops, designers, engineers and developers involve customers at an early stage of the product development cycle to ensure the process of dialog happens with everyone on the same page. On-site presentations at customer locations on current design trends are also offered.

Around 40 employees and five student trainees work in the test labs. While the materials testing laboratory mainly handles internal material tests, most analyses for customer projects are performed in the component testing laboratory. „Many of our test benches are self-built because they are custom-made and unavailable on the market. New analytical tools are also frequently added. If we can’t offer something today, it may well be possible tomorrow. We are constantly adapting to new applications and rebuilding all the while,“ explains Prof. Dr. Ulrich Endemann, who handles the Performance Materials Processing laboratories. Customers can enjoy two extensive support packages in the form of Ultratest and Ultrajoin. The large machine park, including a computer tomograph, laser systems, ovens and several drop towers, includes measuring and testing technology for bonding, (hot gas) welding, acoustics, vibration and heat.

Injection Molding and Pilot Plant Extrusion

BASF manufactures test specimens and plates for tests itself in its pilot plant. The test series there also (quite evidently) subject to constant change. In the press, where considerable experimentation with organic sheets used to take place, two heating tables are now used to investigate the behavior of hybrid metal and plastic solutions. Although the extrusion lines were formerly used to produce fishing line among others, nowadays, Plant Manager Dr. Rüdiger Bluhm and staff tend to repurpose them to produce filaments for 3D printing. A total of around 40 injection molding machines of all sizes and extrusion lines to produce pipes, profiles, hoses and blown films run in the large production hall. BASF trains the machine operators for the plants itself in the technical center.

Steamcracker II, the largest single plant at BASF‘s Ludwigshafen site, covers an area of around 64,000 square meters – the equivalent of 13 soccer fields. The cracker, where 150 or so employees work, most of whom on alternating shifts, is also the „heart“ of the Verbund production. This vast facility, which went into operation in 1980, breaks down raw gasoline naphtha in the first step, adding steam at a temperature of around 800 °C. The main products are ethylene and propylene, both of which are key staples for manufacturing numerous products in Ludwigshafen.

The mixture is then cooled down – in stages – to approx. 35 °C. The next step involves raw gas compression over a total of five stages. Finally, the mixture is separated into the individual raw materials. The two crackers process approximately two million metric tons of naphtha annually, which is then transported to Ludwigshafen via ship and pipeline.

ChemCycling: Partial Replacement of Naphtha

The steam cracker is designed to process naphtha. The ChemCycling project has seen BASF meter pyrolysis oil from chemically recycled plastics into the production Verbund since 2021. BASF already has experience with alternative raw materials: In the course of the biomass balance process, renewable raw materials such as bio-naphtha or biomethane from organic waste, agricultural products or vegetable oils are used as raw materials to manufacture basic chemical products. In 2021, BASF purchased 1.3 million metric tons of renewable raw materials.

The ChemCycling project aims to partially replace fossil raw materials with recycled raw materials. Given that the market for pyrolysis oils is only developing, however, their availability remains a major challenge. All of which is why BASF is cooperating with three start-ups: Quantafuel, Pyrum and New Energy. The Group is also working to electrify its steam crackers. Rather than gas, these are to be powered by green electricity going forward. This should ensure a lower carbon footprint.

BASF SE  

https://www.basf.com

The BASF factory premises in Ludwigshafen.

Within the ten furnaces of the steam cracker, liquid gasoline is channeled through coils and heated.

2022-08-09 BASF su

The Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik was founded by Friedrich Engelhorn in 1865. Around 111,000 BASF Group employees work for customers from almost all industries and in almost every country in the world. The portfolio includes six sectors: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care and Agricultural Solutions. BASF achieved global sales of €78.6 billion in 2021.

And the Group has set itself ambitious climate targets: Compared to 2018, the aim is to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted worldwide by 25 percent by 2030. And by 2050, the goal is: Net Zero Emissions.<a href="https://en.kunststoffe.de/a/news/basf-acquires-shares-of-offshore-wind-fa-334189">This is one of the reasons why the company has taken a stake in the largest wind farm currently under construction.</a> Up to now, the electricity for the Ludwigshafen site has come from three gas-fired power plants. Currently, they generate 1m kWh of electricity per hour.

Our tour begins at the Creation Center, which opened in 2019 and was built on a World War II bunker.

Nowadays, this is the gateway to the world of BASF Performance Materials. It’s also a venue where designers, engineers and developers collaborate with customers on new ideas for design.

Within the architecture lies ample room for new ideas to flourish…

… and turns wide-ranging materials into tangible end products. One example of which: the engineering plastics colored in signal color RAL2003 and shown here, which are particularly sought-after in the e-mobility market for the high-voltage range.

Seeing and feeling: Dr. Guiscard Glück (center). Vice President R&D Engineering Plastics EU, in front of the material shelf in the Creation Center. It includes many material samples, further details of which are available on monitors as required.

Product designer Alex Horisberger with his favorite material Infinergy, an expanded thermoplastic polyurethane (E-TPU) that debuted at K 2019.

Anything but rectangular: The Creation Center‘s architecture is special from every angle – both inside and out.

Meanwhile, the roof is a great vantage point from which to take in the overall scale of the Ludwigshafen premises.

You get an even clearer view of the 2,000 or so buildings of the plant site at night. All eyes inevitably turn to the steam cracker spotlighted in the foreground as the heart of integrated production.

The BASF site in Ludwigshafen has no fewer than three ports – which makes sense, given since about one-third of all deliveries are made by ship. This is what the 4-km long port looks like on the west bank of the Rhine.

A tanker is connected to one of the loading arms to unload cargo in the north port. Every year, this is where around 2,400 tankers dock, handling almost 2.5 million tons of goods.

Steamcracker II, the largest single plant at BASF‘s Ludwigshafen site, covers an area of around 64,000 square meters – the equivalent of 13 soccer fields.

The steam cracker feeds the so-called „Verbund“ (network): the name given to the 2,850-km long network of piping linking up all the factory buildings on the 10 km² site.

Flammable liquids, like naphtha or methanol, are loaded at the North Port, the main role of which is to supply raw materials to the Ludwigshafen plant: The 50 or so different products handled are piped directly from the ship to the adjacent tank farm.

Three power plants operate on the Ludwigshafen site. As part of efforts to become less dependent on fossil fuels, BASF is currently working with Vattenfall to build an offshore wind farm in the Dutch North Sea. The 140 wind farm foundations under construction are around 60–75 m long, with a 7-m diameter at the top and 8 m at the bottom.

A view of the visitor center at the Ludwigshafen site. the museum gives visitors insights into the wide scope of products offered by BASF and bus tours of the site are also offered.

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Endemann handles the Performance Materials Processing laboratories, where 40 or so employees work in various test facilities. Many test rigs – this drop tower for crash tests included – are self-built.

In this laboratory, two different laser markers are used to test how well the respective materials can be marked.

Meanwhile, the computer tomograph inspects materials down to the nanometer level. It can be used to determine the „inner values“ of individual components, which includes the alignment of individual fibers.

The hybrid components within this thermal shock chamber, like overmolded conductor tracks, must prove they can withstand rapid temperature changes between –80 and 200 °C, among other things.

This is a shaker for vibration testing, which can be used horizontally and vertically. Many test setups are permanently modified and then adapted to meet the respective requirements.

Crash testing facilities: the orders are intended for material development or in response to customer requests.

And the terms Ultratest and Ultrajoin refer to two comprehensive customer support packages. This includes all kinds of measuring and testing technology. Pictured is a test setup from the Ultrajoin area, which will also be presented at this year‘s K.

Ultrajoin: Here, testing determines how different adhesives adhere to a paint coating and the exact fracture behavior is analyzed. Air pockets in the adhesive are key here. BASF has developed a method to visualize them and calculate their volume.

Meanwhile, BASF engineers are proud of the various patents that have been registered in the course of the company‘s history. Here is a certificate from the injection molding sector.

A patent application was also filed for a hot gas welding process. The technology developed is more energy-efficient and halves the welding time – for more, see the Kunststoffe international article „<a href="https://en.kunststoffe.de/a/specialistarticle/faster-and-better-welding-263968">Faster and Better Welding</a>“.

Dr. Rüdiger Bluhm is head of operations at the in-house technical center.

The production hall is divided into two halves: with 40 injection-molding machines in operation on one side.

Four automated manufacturing cells produce test specimens in wide-ranging designs.

Stringent specifications apply to the injection-molding machines for producing tie rods. A screw specially designed for BASF ensures that the material has been homogenized using unchanged methods for the past 20 years.

Various tool inserts await use in the tool changer, which changes them around automatically.

The machine park also sheds more light on injection molding history; Arburg models, for example, that are not yet realized in the classic green.

The Hemscheidt company no longer exists. Even so, the injection-molding machines they supplied in the technical center remain reliable performers. The two outsize machines are used for producing larger prototypes and test materials.

The largest plant, which is mainly used to produce test plates, produces with shot weights of up to five kg.

Sample components with metal inserts: a steering gear and an engine mount.