JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - Supplement lnnovation report - 40

JEC WORLD 2018

FlexPLAS - An innovative
> Booth:
"all-in-one" bagging film
Hall 5 - E58
The use of vacuum bags in the manufacture of FRP
components is a widespread practice in many industry segments, including aerospace and wind energy.
The typical procedure involves a multi-layer setup in
which individual materials such as films and nonwovens
are responsible for specific properties such as vacuum
tightness, release, resin and vacuum pressure distribution.
Typically, up to 4 different layers - peel ply, release film,
bleeder/breather material, and vacuum bag - are used.
These must be carefully packaged and positioned precisely to ensure optimal part quality.
Multi-sector

Aeronautics

Cost-effective manufacturing of
> Booth:
3D moulded parts from organo sheets
Hall 5 - M56
To manufacture demanding and sophisticated 3D
composite elements for use in aircraft construction,
WICKERT designed a press that guarantees high
economic efficiency. The WKP 1700 S not only reduces production waste, it also saves water. WICKERT
developed an innovative tensioning frame for this press.
The organo sheets can be either inserted directly or
mounted as a sandwich between two high-temperature polyimide films. This has the advantage that the warm organo sheet sags significantly less. The welcome effect is that it
is possible to reduce the cutting allowance of the organo sheets, which reduces production waste up to 30%. To prevent unwanted intervention in the light barrier leading to an
expensive rejected part, the machine is equipped with a 6-mm clearance monitoring. As
soon as the mould is open by 6 mm, no intervention in the light barrier can interrupt the
process. The press cooling system is connected to a highly- efficient circulation system in a
closed-loop design so that no water is wasted.
www.wickert-presstech.de

Multi-sector

3D Winder: a robotic 3D winding machine
> Booth:
The 3D Winder is a robotic 3D winding machine capable of mak- Hall 5 - M70
ing complex composite parts with three-dimensional non-linear axes and varying
cross-sections. It can quickly and precisely lay down multiple carbon fibre tows with
complex curves and corners. The machine can lay down high volumes of fibre at
much faster deposition rates than similar technologies such as braiding and weaving.
Multiple tows of up to 50,000 filaments each can be laid
down at once and trials have shown it has the potential to
wind an aircraft spar in only a few minutes.
The machine deposits fibres in different directions and
at predefined angles, so that a composite part can be tailored for strength where it is needed. The fibres are laid
around a permanent or temporary mandrel to create
radial, multi-axial materials. The static mandrel can be
relatively weak as it is not expected to move and only needs enough strength to withstand
differences in winding tension. At Cygnet Texkimp's UK headquarters in Northwich,
Cheshire, a prototype is able to produce parts measuring up to 3 metres in length and with
a profile of up to 500mm across, but the full scale of the parts this technology can produce
is limited only by the application. The technology competes with a wide range of alternative methodologies including braiding, weaving, and conventional filament winding, but
offers compelling benefits to high-volume manufacturers in terms of speed of manufacture, strength, uniformity and repeatability of the finished product.
www.cygnet-texkimp.com

jec composites magazine / N° 119 supplement - Innovation Report

Working together with Fraunhofer IFAM, Infiana was
able to create a flexible, vacuum-tight bagging film that
can be embossed with particular structured surfaces.
These structures give the film additional properties
such as air pathways and optimize resin distribution.
Combined with the residue-free release provided by the
plasma polymer coating, this results in an innovative multi-purpose film for bagging applications with a safer, simpler setup process than conventional vacuum bags.
This all-in-one film offers significant savings and efficiencies in the FRP production process: vacuum bag setup
times can be shortened by up to 50%, and the simplified
procedure provides a great deal of process safety. Beyond
this, eliminating additional bagging material means less
material is used overall; this not only offers cost savings,
but makes composite part production more sustainable.
www.infiana.com

http://www.wickert-presstech.de http://www.cygnet-texkimp.com http://www.infiana.com http://www.jeccomposites.com/mediakit

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - Supplement lnnovation report