Processing Capabilities for Thermoplastic Composites – Minimum Material Consumption and Recyclability

Abstract

An important measure for improved lightweight performance is utilisation of materials only to the extent, as it is necessary for the application. To achieve a minimum part weight in high volume lightweight applications, it is necessary to combine thermoplastic composite sheet materials exposing different thicknesses. Then, a minimum material consumption is gained. Such composite components have the capabilities of being fully recyclable. Used parts as well as scrap and cut-off that arises during production can be recycled and used for injection moulding of ribs and other geometry, even to become part of the same composite component later on. However, there are considerable challenges in the processing since different composite sheets need to be processed simultaneously. A processing unit was designed, build and tested that is capable to process thermoplastic composite sheets with three different thicknesses. The resultant part, a structural automotive door component, exposes areas were the composite sheet thickness is 0.6 mm, 1.0 mm, and 2.5 mm, respectively. Besides of the injection moulding, the processing requires two different kind of infrared ovens with a specialized software for the control of the heating and three articulated robots for the automated handling operations of the composite blanks.