JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #103 - March 2016 - 51

awards

Combination of C-SMC and patented
application to Automotive A-class components
For the first time, chopped composites are going to be widely used for
aesthetic purposes in the automotive
industry. Lamborghini owns the patent
to achieve A-grade surfaces out of CSMC materials.
The Lamborghini Huracàn carbon
package no longer uses traditional
2x2 twill prepreg, but results from a
combination of C-SMC and a patented
manufacturing process, achieving an
A-grade result. Lamborghini's aim is to
change the customer's mindset, as far
as carbon package is concerned.
The Forged Composite material
application was launched in 2010 with
the Sesto Elemento project, but it was
then limited to structural applications.
Today, Lamborghini's engineers have
worked to achieve the A-class surface

Structural module in thermoplastic
composites for trucks
This project focuses on the front
structural parts of a truck cabin. Largesized organosheets (2x1.2m) made
of thermoplastic composite materials
based on high-flow polyamide 6 and a
woven glass fabric were developed for
their extreme laminate strength and
stiffness. Together with OEMs, Solvay
designed all the thermoplastic composite firewall structural parts. For the
simulation, Solvay supplied numerical
laws and used an advanced material
database for the Evolite composite, the
PA6/short glass fibre material and the
adhesive, as well as an advanced simulation for composites and assembly

Automotive: Interior parts

requirement for automotive standard
out of the Forged Composite material
process. The main challenges encountered were the reduction of the edge
vortex (not acceptable according to
Lamborghini's quality standards),
the surface quality after moulding,
the component paintability and the
integration of the fixing systems in a
one-step moulding process. In 2014,
all the automotive tests were conducted successfully and the material was
ready to be used and processed for a
new Lamborghini project: the Huracàn
carbon package.
The biggest achievement of this
innovation is the fact that carbon fibre
usage is extended to large production
volumes, thanks to the use of the press
moulding process. Despite the tradi-

Winner: Automobili Lamborghini (Italy)

tionally low production volumes of
Lamborghini cars, this technology is
capable of producing over 500 parts
per day. Additionally, the C-SMC
process is less expensive than traditional prepregs. Finally, a relevant and
particularly interesting point considering the environmental impact is that it
recycled fibres can be used in the raw
material preparation.

Automotive: Structural parts
to predict strength, stiffness and the
fracture initiation area. To validate all
these numerical laws, Solvay produced
thermoplastic composite prototypes
and tested them in dynamic conditions
to correlate the simulation with the
reality. Finally, the manufacturing step
used an innovative process developed
by HBW Gubesch. This one-shot process combines a stamping process (for
organosheets) and a single pressing
process (for structural ribs) to ensure a
short manufacturing cycle.
In order to address these challenges,
an industry consortium joined forces

Winner: Solvay (France)
Partner: HBW Gubesch (Germany)

to design, manufacture and validate
a composite firewall (front structural
parts of the truck cab) offering a 25%
weight reduction, that divided by two
the number of parts compared to current metal designs without compromising performance.

No103 March 2016 / jec

composites magazine 51
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #103 - March 2016
