JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #93 - December 2014 - 28

awards
Innovative composite winding technology
for CNG storage in the automotive industry
In the automotive industry, natural gas is currently stored as CNG (Compressed Natural
Gas) in cylindrical high-pressure tanks. In
order to increase the range of vehicles, the
available design space needs to be used more
efficiently. The modular, shape adaptable,
cellular high-pressure storage tank "CNGDLR-Wabentank" shows the potential for
increasing the range of CNG vehicles while
reducing CO2 emissions compared to diesel
or petrol vehicles. The innovation presented
here uses an innovative composite winding
technology (polar winding of non-rotationally
symmetric cells and 3D-winding) to produce
the first ever fully manufactured modular and
free shapeable high-pressure vessel, offering
30% more available volume. This patented
tank concept creates the possibility of new
space utilization with minimal weight gain
due to the intensive use of optimally placed
reinforcing fibres. Thin aluminium liners
are overwound individually, connected to

each other with a novel high-pressure joining
concept and finally wound using an innovative
robot-assisted 3D-winding procedure. The
achieved design space adaptability, flexibility
and modular structure provide considerable
benefits to customers and designers; the
DLR CNG tank will be of interest to both
automotive manufacturers and suppliers.
CNG vessels (operating pressure of 200-250
bar) no longer have to be built as rotationally
symmetrical cylinders. The institute's research
departments are working on the development of future technologies and systems for
sustainable, safe and affordable next-generation vehicles. The development phase extends
from conception and design, via engineering
design and calculation, through the manufacturing process to create the first demonstrator.
The manufacturing process will be validated
by November 2014 and the functional capability will be demonstrated by testing the first
shape-adaptable gas vessel by January 2015.

Winner: German Aerospace Center - DLR
(Germany)
Partner: Helmholtz Association (Germany)

The gas market is growing steadily. Possible
license holders could be car manufacturers,
automotive suppliers, or companies working
in the CNG tank industry and wishing to
expand their business. Buyers of the modular,
shape-adaptable cellular CNG tank could
be any international vehicle manufacturer.
The market potential is immense because, on
the one hand, new manufacturing processes
open the door to new composite solutions
and, on the other hand, a new space-efficient
high-pressure vessel is a major competitor to
standard vessels and composite solutions.

Sustainability

Cork composite skateboard
Lavender Composites supplied materials
and knowledge to Archer Cork Skateboards
to assist them in the research, development
and production of a vibration-reducing cork
composite skateboard. The skateboard was
developed to raise awareness that composites can be environmentally friendly while
showing high performance. Traditionally,
skateboards have always been made of wood
or carbon composites, but Archer decided
to use Amorim's CoreCork, reinforce it with
Bcomp's Amplitex flax fabrics, and infuse
it with Sicomin's GreenPoxy. The result is a
laminate that displays an extraordinary high
level of vibration reduction, creating a smooth
ride for the skater, and improved performance
without the use of any traditional materials, proving there is a sustainable option
that does not sacrifice performance. The
process started out with traditional hand-laid
wood laminates, examining what the main
performance issues were. The first and main
issue was the "feel" of the ride, and how the
vibrations could be suppressed. The initial test
consisted in adding cork "spacers" between

Storage

the deck and the "trucks" (axle). This worked
as a temporary solution for existing wooden
boards, paving the way to attempt an improvement by creating the whole board - not just
a veneer or spacer- from cork. Cork is flexible
and combines perfectly well with the flax reinforcement, which has similar characteristics.
The next step was to find a matrix that would
perform well, but could be infused so to keep
the VOC content to a minimum. Sicomin's
GreenPoxy was chosen as it displays one of
the highest contents of bio-based ingredients.
Testing was undertaken after combining all of
these elements. Following many attempts to
vary reinforcement combinations and lay-ups,
the final laminate performing truly better
than expected was determined. This laminate
redefined the benchmark for a "smooth" ride.
To make sure this was not an optimistic and
biased point of view, samples were brought
to various professional skateboard manufacturers. Considering the eager response of
the skateboarding industry, this product has
huge potential. Not only does it have a selling
advantage as an eco-responsible product, but

28 jec composites magazine / No93 December 2014

Winner: Lavender Composites (Australia)
Partnership Network: Archer Cork
Skateboards (Australia), Amorim (France)
Sicomin (France), Bcomp (Switzerland)

it outperforms current products. Skateboarding is a worldwide, multimillion-dollar
industry, but it is the laminate that holds the
key to success. If the new product can replace
even a small percentage of currently manufactured boards, the potential is promising. This
innovative project started out as a challenge to
see how best to suppress the vibrations on a
skateboard, but in the course of doing so created a laminate that surpassed expectations. It
not only showed a vibration reduction, but it
did so using sustainable materials.

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #93 - December 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #93 - December 2014