JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #95 - Special JEC Europe - March 2015 - 44

awards

official partner

Semiproducts

Very long flax fiber reinforced composite

Flaxpreg™ is a "green", lightweight
thermoset sandwich reinforced with
very long flax fibres. It can be effectively
used as a multi-position trunk loadfloor
or structural floor in the passenger
compartment of a vehicle. The prepreg
FlaxTapes© (about 120 g/m²) that
constitute the skins of the sandwich
are unidirectionally-aligned flax fibres
tapes, with acrylic resin in this application, easily handled without any spinning or weaving step and thus without
any negative out-of-plane crimping of
the almost continuous flax fibres.
The Flaxpreg™ project, developed by
Faurecia with PSA Peugeot Citroën,
Lineo and the University of Reims, aims
to design structural trim parts following

three objectives: a drastic weight reduction, the use of renewable resources and
a process in line with automotive cycle
times and material cost constraints.
Thanks to the very low density (1.45)
of the FlaxTapes©, combined with their
adaptive 0°/90°/0° orientation (for each
skin) depending on the loading boundary conditions, the excellent mechanical
properties achieved allow a 35% weight
reduction compared to petroleum-sourced glass mat/PUR sandwich solutions
(such as Baypreg).
When it comes to market potential, the
first goal is to address the structural
trunk loadfloor market, which is typically dominated by the Baypreg thermoset
technology (PU + glass fibres). Other

EASYPERM can provide the required
values in a reliable and consistent way.
Based on more than 10 years of experience in permeability measurement,
process simulation and prototype manufacturing, EASYPERM benefits from a
strong experience thanks to the background of its developer company, PPE.

applications include package trays, door
trims or seat backing and are currently
being studied.

Laboratory equipment

3D permeability bench
The EASYPERM bench makes it
possible to measure 3D permeability
(in-plane and through-the-thickness)
in a unique manner. Permeability, as an
intrinsic characteristic of reinforcements,
is an essential information for process
simulation.

Winner: Faurecia (France)
Partner(s): Lineo (France), Université
de Reims (France), PSA Peugeot Citröen
(France)

EASYPERM is also an international
product, based on a strong partnership
between PPE and MVC (Brazil): PPE
focused on the measurement technology while MVC handled the design
and creativity of the bench to make it
particularly attractive, with a unique
"identity".
The main objective of EASYPERM is
to spread the use of composite materials by increasing the level of understanding of end-users. By allowing
permeability measurements, it helps
users to simulate processes, compare
reinforcements and check reinforcement quality.

44 jec composites magazine / No95 March 2015

Winner: PPE (France)
Partnership Network: MVC Solutions
in Plastics (Brazil), NOVALL (France)

The bench was pre-launched at the
JEC Asia 2014 and 15 offers have
already been provided to interested
customers.
http://www.mikrosam.com
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #95 - Special JEC Europe - March 2015

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