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Whitepaper

Plastics Discovery Tour

Fakuma

“Paper Pearls” material opens up the possibility of integrating plastic-free, highly filled paper fiber blends into applications previously reserved for plastics – using standard injection molding machines and processes.

The “Slot-Lock” positioning tools, which are injection molded from “Paper Pearls” (here with 51 % fiber content) and weigh around 20 g, are sustainable, stable and compostable after use.

16:9

Spritzgießen

Doriat, Clemens, Dr.

Faserverarbeitung

Recycling

Verbundwerkstoffe / Werkstoffverbunde

Nachhaltigkeit

Injection Molded Parts for the Paper Bin

Chopped fiber processing allows the direct processing of chopped glass fibers and significantly expands the field of application for long fiber-reinforced PP.

Processing of chopped glass fibers on a standard injection molding machine.

Leichtbau

Schnecken und Plastifiziersysteme

Processing Chopped Glass Directly in the Injection Molding Process

The European composites market 2023 – AVK presents developments, trends, challenges and outlook

AVK‘s Composites Europe 2023 market report highlights developments, trends and challenges. It‘s a look into the future.

AVK presents current developments and trends for the European composites market.

Markt & Wirtschaft

Faserverbundwerkstoffe

The Market Is Declining

The FiberXpert fiber feeder is an example of how Kubota Brabender Technologie has developed new, pioneering processes and feeders from innovative ideas.

FiberXpert FX225 is ideal for feeding long, irregular fibers. 

Messe K-Kunststoffmesse

Fasern

Materialhandling

Kunststofffasern

Feeding of Long, Recycled Fibers

Brückner Maschinenbau focuses its trade show presence on higher plant efficiency and sustainable film production.

BOPP and BOPET are among the most popular packaging films. They are now produced on lines at speeds of over 600 m/min.

Flachfolien- und Plattenextrusion

Folienabzug- und -aufwickelmaschinen

Extrusionsanlagen

Folienreckanlagen

Faster and Wider BO Lines

Lightweight design with fiber-reinforced plastics saves energy resources in the use phase of automobiles and aircraft. However, the savings are often offset by higher consumption in production. Therefore, the focus is increasingly shifting to sustainability in manufacturing. The Research Institute Neue Materialien Bayreuth has conducted a corresponding sustainability analysis for the processing of thermoplastic UD tapes into functionally integrated components.

Fig. 4. The demonstrator component “2D-MultiMat” was manufactured with laminates of woven fabric organosheets and UD tapes (CF or GF/CF hybrid) based on PP and injection-molded functional integration (PP-GF) with the FORCE process chain.

Evaluate the Environmental Impact of the Production of FRP Components

UD-Tapes

Organobleche (gewebeverstärkte Thermoplast-Halbzeuge)

Schnüre, Bänder, Tapes

How Sustainable Is  Lightweight Design Really?

Gefran has launched a new product series: the high-precision and robust magnetostrictive position sensors of the Hyperwave series. The linear position transducers operate contactless, are characterized by their high EMC noise immunity and are insensitive to vibrations and shock. To meet the requirements of diverse applications, the linear position sensors are available in three different versions.

Hyperwave sensors are available in rod and profile versions for measuring ranges of different lengths, and with different interfaces.

New Systems for Various Applications

Sensorik für Kunststoff-Verarbeitungsmaschinen

Sensoren / Messwertaufnehmer

Wickelmaschinen

Pressen, hydraulisch

Spritzgießmaschinen

Fertigungsmesstechnik

Längenmesssensoren

Robust Linear Position Sensors with Long Life Time

Currently, small wind turbines can hardly be operated profitably in landlocked regions. This drawback has now been overcome by the partners EAB Gebäudetechnik Luckau GmbH and the Chair of Polymer-based Lightweight Design at the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg: passive smartblades made from 3D-printed molds adapt independently to wind conditions. This is achieved by an intelligent layer structure and its bending-torsion-coupling.

This newly developed rotor blade is especially suited for weak-wind regions and adapts independently to the wind load

Additive Manufacture of FRP Injection Molds for FRP Components of Small Wind Turbines

Glasfasern / -matten

Simulation Produkt- / Formteildesign

Finite Methoden

Harze, Epoxid

Windkraft

Analysetools, FEM

Additive Fertigung

Highly Efficient Adaptive  Fiber-Composite Rotor Blades

Diode lasers are often used for the production of lightweight components by means of thermoplastic tape laying. However, common tape laying systems are noticeably limited in their production capacity. With a flexible multi-head system, Laserline GmbH promises a cost-efficient system that should also pay off in large-scale production.

The direct diode laser LDMdirect from Laserline facilitates installation in assembly lines  thanks to its small housing width of only 50 mm. Another plus point: Several processing heads  can be integrated into one mounting

Multiple Processing Heads in a Row Optimize Processing Speed

Halbleiterlaser, Diodenlaser

The Hydra among Diode Lasers

In the iComposite 4.0 research project, it has been possible to cut the costs for a prototype component by more than 50 percent and throughput time by 40 percent.

View of the production system built for the iComposite 4.0 project at the RWTH Aachen AZL

Economic Production of Fiber-Reinforced Plastics in High Volumes

Schröder, Susanne

Pressen von Kunststoffen

Self-Regulating Production Plant

Short glass fiber-reinforced plastics are exposed to complex load cases during the operating time. Therefore, the influence of alternating load and frequency in the form of load spectra on material fatigue is investigated and an integrative computational method for structural design is presented. With this practical approach, a fast fatigue life estimation is possible.

20:7

The Influence of Varying Frequency and Load Level on the Fatigue Life of Short Glass  Fiber-Reinforced Technical Thermoplastics

Thermoplaste

Cumulative Failures Prevention

Climate change and the transport revolution are demanding smart fiber-reinforced composite solutions. In sectors such as the marine industry, infrastructure, and rail vehicle construction, many different fire protection concepts are competing. The composites industry is paying increased attention to recycling.

The first natural fiber-reinforced satellite panel permits safe space exploration and completely burns up on re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere

Fiber-Reinforced Composites Drive Innovation in the Transport and Construction Sectors

Composite-Halbzeuge

Kohlenstofffasern / -matten

Sekundärfasern

Composites Are Trendsetters in Lightweight Design

Organo sheets have become established in several industrial sectors for the series production of highly stressed lightweight components. The utilization of waste material is a promising recycling approach.

Even with a highly optimized production of organo sheets, considerable amounts of scrap occur

Feeding Mechanically Recycled Fiber-Reinforced Thermoplastics Back to Production

Mahlgut

Kunststoff-Recycling

Mahlen

Organo Sheet Recycling

The company’s latest model in the blown film segment is a five-layer co-extrusion blown film line that enables the production of film with maximum lay-flat width of 1400 mm.

The new five-layer co-extrusion blown film line features a high performance Ø300 mm die for maximum output 600 kg/h

Kung Hsing Stands out in Multi-Layer Film Extrusion

Blasfolienextrusion

Kunststoffverarbeitung

Folien

High-Speed and Efficient Blown Film Line

Additives often consist of additive mixtures of heterogeneous components. Their anisometry leads to part properties that depend very strongly on the orientation of the additives. For this reason, it is essential to describe such orientation behavior at an early phase of development when additized plastics parts are being designed.

Simulated fiber orientation in an additive mixture of fibers and spheres with a volume fraction of 4 % each

Simulating the Orientation Behavior of Additive Mixtures

Additiv-Konzentrate

Prozesssimulation

Spritzgießsimulation

Füllstoffe, allgemein

Additiv-Batches

Füllstoffe für Kunststoffe

Additive

Elektrisch leitende Füllstoffe (Metalllegierungen, Ruß, Graphit)

When Fibers Mix with Platelets

Carbon fibers are due to their high price interesting for recycling. The results of the project RecyCarb enable the multiple use of carbon fibers as functional re-use. First demonstrator parts in the areas of medical technology and automotive prove the industrial feasibility.

Plant for carbon nonwovens at STFI with guillotine cutting machine (1), tearing machine (2), feeder chute (3), airlay (4), card (5), cross-lapper (6), needle loom (7) and Maliwatt unit (8)

Re-Use of Recycled Carbon Fibers in Sophisticated Composite Parts

Second Life for Carbon Fibers

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

Making It Big with Small Bubbles

Composite Processing - Plastics Insights