One of them, Michael Kaiser, Institute of Aircraft Design - University of Stuttgart, will give a presentation on "Automated impregnation of thick performs for costeffective manufacturing of fibre reinforced plastics" - A short summary:
"Liquid composite moulding (LCM) processes have shown the potential to enable a cost-effective manufacturing of fibre reinforced plastics in medium production rates and have proven to increased the quality of the components. With the aim to reduce manufacturing steps and to enhance the range of application of LCM processes, an automatable impregnation routine for the manufacturing of preforms was developed. The product of the automated impregnation process is a flexible, multilayer, impregnated semi-finished product, which can be draped and joined together in a wet state and finally cured in a second step. Since the semi-finished product is already fully impregnated and compacted with low void content, the assembled preimpregnated preform can be cured also in low pressure out-of-autoclave processes.
In the presentation, the different process steps of the automated infiltration technique for thick preforms will be shown and compared with standard prepreg and infiltration routines. Additionally, potential savings concerning process time, necessary investments and technical advantages will be scrutinised.
The impact of different parameters on the preimpregnated semi-finished product, like compaction, applied amount of resin and resin distribution on the preform will be explained based on the results of the first trials. Quality assessments are conducted through mechanical and optical analysis. A concluding outlook of potential applications using the new manufacturing routine is given. (...)". The whole lecture will be given on 08 June at 09:55 am.
The whole program including detailed information on the accompanying exhibition and application forms are available for downloading at www.cfk-convention.com. Please register now! (Number of participants is limited, registration deadline 21 May 2011)