Abstract
Innovative materials for substituting metals are required to reduce the mass of moving components. This decreases the CO2 emissions of overall systems. A thermoset sandwich for high mechanical properties and thermal insulation is presented in this paper. It has an innovative 3D continuous reinforced core, which allows the optimisation of the substance exploitation by wide-ranging possibilities of fibre orientation. This was demonstrated with three sandwich variants. The reference had no core reinforcement and the other two were reinforced with different spacer fabrics. The process chain for the manufacturing consists of Structural Reaction Injection Moulding (SRIM) and Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Moulding (VARTM). Significant increases in absolute as well as specific characteristic values were demonstrated by the reinforcement in a compression and bending test. It was also shown that quasi-static characteristic values under fatigue loading are maintained to a greater extent with the core reinforcement. The sandwich material was applied as a floor assembly for a snow groomer. The design was tailor-made for the mechanical, thermal and acoustic requirements. This proved the transferability of the process chain for manufacturing samples to the production of large-volume components with complex geometry.
Highlights
Introduction and State of the ArtForces can be directed through components according to the load requirements with fibre-reinforced plastics (FRP)
This paper presents a thermoset sandwich design consisting of two short glass fibre reinforced facings and a foam in between
Spacer fabrics were investigated for reinforcing the core
Summary
Forces can be directed through components according to the load requirements with fibre-reinforced plastics (FRP). Compared to steel can be achieved with FRP as substitution material for this reason [1]. Decreasing the total mass of a vehicle by 10% leads to a fuel saving of 4–6% [2]. The resulting quasi-static mechanical properties are generally much higher than the sum of the materials used for the layers [3]. Further mass is saved through the porosity of the core [4]. This provides excellent crashworthiness and heat insulating properties [5,6]. Different requirement profiles can be fulfilled by a targeted selection. The most important aspect is the distinction between thermosets and thermoplastics
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