JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #95 - Special JEC Europe - March 2015 - 48

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Transportation

CFRP air spring base for buses
Air spring beams for omnibuses are
currently manufactured with steel. As
a result, the construction weighs more
than 53 kg. MAN has developed an air
spring beam for omnibuses made from
CFRP materials that weighs less than
16 kg. In the automotive industry, the
manufacturer has to guarantee that
every part has the same high quality. The
braiding technology was selected for the
production of the CFRP beam. The main
advantage is that the process is completely automated.
Several robots guide the core through the
braiding machine without any manual
interference whatsoever. Due to the high
productivity, complete automation, and
very low scrap of braiding, the cost of

the CFRP beam will be highly reduced
and - considering the significant weight
reduction - competitively viable.
The use of CFRP results in a 70% weight
reduction compared to the previous steel
version. Since there are two beams in
every omnibus, the vehicle can load one
more passenger. This brings significantly
more revenue for customers.
The beam was designed in cooperation
by experts in autobus technologies -
MAN - and in composite production
- Munich Composites. MAN had the
idea to manufacture the beam from
CFRP to reduce weight and looked for
a partner that could not only build the
component but also produce it in high
volumes. Munich Composites designed

Design and manufacturing of a 100%
-composite self-supporting front floor module

PSA Peugeot Citroën made groundbreaking design studies to replace a
traditional steel body-in-white by a
multi-material car body design using
lighter materials. This innovation is based
on the design and manufacturing of a
100%-composite self-supporting front
floor module using thermoset resin and
glass fibre reinforcements.
One of the biggest challenges was to
create a concept for mainstream automotive applications with high production
rate targets without any cost impact on
the Peugeot and Citroën end-consumers.
One of the targets was to introduce the
composite module in an existing plant
without having to build a specific line.
It is the first innovative concept with
a 100%-composite structural design,
which completely replaces traditional
metal beams on the car-body floor for
crash requirements. The composite mo-

Winners: MAN Truck & Bus (Germany),
Munich Composites (Germany)

the prototype for the CFRP beam based
on many years of composite engineering
and manufacturing experience. The
braiding technology is optimized for
the production of small or large series of
CFRP components that absolutely have
to be reproducible.

Automotive: Body-in-white
Winner: PSA Peugeot Citroën (France)
Partner: Plastic Omnium (France)

dule is designed to absorb crash impact
and offer other body-in-white functionalities. It is composed of four composite
parts, replacing a perimeter equivalent
to more than thirty traditional steel parts
assembled. This new design method
reduces assembly costs. The composite
front floor is based on an SMC manufacturing technology developed by Plastic
Omnium for this application and is
produced in a 2-minute cycle time. It is
made from a specific thermoset material,
an advanced SMC material produced by
Plastic Omnium.

2500-T industrial compression press. It
helps control the module's cost. To be
able to deliver a 900-vehicle per day production rate, Plastic Omnium validated a
fully automated process.

This advanced SMC is based on a specific
vinylester resin and reinforced with a
high percentage of chopped glass fibres.
A preforming step precedes the thermocompression process in order to improve
the robustness of the SMC technology.
This SMC technology enables Plastic
Omnium to produce huge parts (1.5
m*1.5 m) in one shot with a standard,

Complete vehicles were tested amidst a
large validation plan and passed vehicle
testing procedures: crash tests, NVH,
fatigue, vehicle handling, EMC, carbody torsions, etc. This PSA Peugeot
Citroën innovation is integrated into the
Peugeot 208 Hybrid Air 2L and Citroën
C4 Cactus Concept Airflow 2L models
presented at the 2014 Paris Motor Show.

48 jec composites magazine / No95 March 2015
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #95 - Special JEC Europe - March 2015

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