Abstract
This chapter gives an overview of cost-effective processing techniques, employed for manufacturing of automotive parts, primarily using carbon fiber-based thermoset composites. The global regulations of fuel economy in automotives have forced the automobile manufacturers to look into powertrain efficiency and weight-effective alternative materials. Polymer composite materials are the best candidates. The attributes of significant weight reduction, superior fatigue and corrosion resistance, and enhanced crash worthiness as well as an integrated approach for reducing the parts count of polymer composites have resulted in a significant increase in research and development work in recent years, for automotive applications. The scope of this chapter is to review the techniques of processing thermoset polymer composites with emphasis on cost-effectiveness via an integrated approach, automation, materials formulation, and modeling and simulation. Recent developments in these techniques are discussed and associated success stories for automotive applications are provided. The techniques discussed are resin transfer molding, vacuum-assisted resin infusion processes, Quickstep processing with particular emphasis on resin spray technology, pultrusion, filament winding, and compression molding/sheet molding compound/bulk molding compounds, with emphasis on recycled carbon fibers. A brief overview of the P4 technique employed for automotive application is also provided at the end.
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