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01/09/2006
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Carbon fibre composites may have more relevance to mainstream car design than many engineers believe, writes Roger Bishop.
When the equation is resolved that includes data on production runs and the difference in tooling costs for steel, injection moulded or composite panels, then composite solutions can look attractive.
A British company, Advanced Composites Group (ACG), has developed a two-ply system, called ZPREG, that has already proved itself within the Volkswagen group. OK, it was a Lamborghini*, but the company says its technology is ideally suited to production runs of up to 25,000 parts per year and that puts it well within the grasp of mainstream car-makers producing top-end niche products.
We hear that components made using the system are soon to be included in a Stuttgart car.
ZPREG is designed for production cycle times of around 15 minutes using compression moulding. No autoclaving is required. Surface quality is excellent and parts have sufficient structure to withstand ‘dings and dents’. Resins have been formulated to provide a highly stable surface finish with very low shrinkage. Finished parts ñ typically fenders, bonnets, roof tops, boot lids and bumper skins – accept all standard water-based and solvent-based paints.
The first ply, utilising ACG’s partial impregnation technology, consists of a structural fabric coupled to a surface scrim by a high performance resin system. The second ply combines low density syntactic core (hollow glass spheres) and structural fabric to create significant panel rigidity in a rapid laminating format. The surface scrim in the first ply hides the weave pattern on the surface to be painted.
Tooling costs (aluminium) for a fender would certainly be less than $100,000 and could be as low as $50,000. This compares with, say, $1.2 million for a toolset for a pressed steel part or $0.5 million for an injection moulding tool. Processing temperatures are between 85 and 180°C.
Advanced Composites supplies the material system and process knowhow but does not undertake part manufacture.
* Front and rear bumper skins, front hood and side sill covers.
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Author
Roger Bishop
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