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Hybrid Lightweight Technologies News

The future lies in intelligent material mixes

Frankfurt, May 19, 2016 – Lightweight construction is essential for a resource-saving, energy-efficient environment. Just like aviation, the automotive engineering sector is increasingly using lightweight construction solutions to reduce CO2 emissions. By 2020, lightweight construction around the world is expected to total EUR 140 billion for the transport sector alone, with growth rates of seven to eight percent. With this in mind, VDMA has established the Hybrid Lightweight Technologies working group Mechanical engineers and representatives from user and supplier industries use this platform to exchange information and ideas on opportunities, technologies and materials for lightweight construction. VDMA will hear from some of the representatives of lightweight construction in a series of interviews. 

Interview with Nicolas Beyl, Managing Director of KraussMaffei Technologies GmbH, President of the Reaction Process Machinery segment of the KraussMaffei Group, and member of the Board of the Hybrid Lightweight Technologies working group.

Given its outstanding benefits, will CFRP not replace all other materials at some point?

Nicolas Beyl: There will always be a mix of materials, especially in automotive. CFRP, glass fiber reinforced plastics, aluminum and high-strength steels will all be used, depending on the specific application. Take the B-pillar, for example. I can certainly imagine it being made from fiber reinforced plastic in future. The B-pillar needs to be extremely strong and meet stringent crash requirements. As well as its high strength-to-weight ratio, the key advantage of a fiber reinforced structure is its high energy absorption in the event of a crash. In other areas, such as the seat shells in the back seat, the parts are more likely to be made from carbon nonwovens using wet molding, so that cheaper recycled materials can be used. An intelligent material mix of thermosets, thermoplastics, fiber reinforced materials and metals is the future.

How does a material mix like this develop?

Beyl: The development can be seen very nicely at Audi. In the A8, Audi brought the first full aluminum bodywork onto the market in the 1990s. It had a lot of critics at the time, and full aluminum bodywork in this extreme form never became standard. But the effect was that more and more parts of the car, such as the hood, fenders and sometimes even doors are now made from aluminum. I think the material mix with fiber reinforced plastics will be a similar story. Areas of the car in which fiber reinforced plastics dominate will establish themselves, while aluminum or steel will dominate in other areas.

Carbon fibers are very expensive. What can be done to reduce the costs of CFRP?

Beyl: The material costs themselves are high, and the process costs are too. The production of a CFRP component is still very labor-intensive today, as a lot of the work is still done manually. This is where we mechanical engineers come in – we need to automate and simplify the process further, so that it can run as efficiently as possible. We also need to reduce the costs in post processing. Today, the parts still need to be milled when they come out of the press, and the surface needs to be prepared for painting. But we also already offer processes in which the surface treatment is conducted within the tool, so that the part can be painted straight away when it comes out.

How long will it take for the cost of CFRP components to fall?

Beyl: It should be possible to halve the costs in five to seven years. The question of the cost of CFRP is a bit of a chicken-and-egg question. The costs can only be reduced efficiently with large batch sizes, but the only way to get large batch sizes is if the process runs cost-efficiently. One thing is certain: someone has to make the first step.

Process costs are also energy costs. What is the overall energy balance of a car?

Beyl: There are various studies comparing the energy consumption involved in the production of steel and aluminum with that of fiber reinforced plastic parts. What I ultimately take from them is that we are at a similar level when it comes to energy costs for production. It also takes a lot of energy to produce steel and aluminum – the materials first need to be melted on. When carbon fiber parts are produced, it is producing the fibers that requires the most energy. Producing the parts themselves – laying the fibers and injecting the resin – takes relatively little energy. The thermal energy needed to heat the tools is the largest fraction. The rest of the process is relatively energy-efficient. At the moment, the CO2 balance does not show a clear advantage over conventional materials, but I am very optimistic that we can achieve a positive energy balance as the process is developed further. A positive energy balance means that less energy is consumed over the total life cycle of the car, i.e. production and operation, than with comparable steel components, for example.

To what extent does lightweight construction promote sustainability?

Beyl: Lightweight construction is sustainable per se, as it ultimately saves energy and reduces CO2 emissions. That is precisely the point of sustainability: to pass the Earth on to the next generations in the same state or even better. The low price of gasoline and other fuels at the moment means that some people are losing sight of this. This is just a temporary blip. But we must face the fact that fuel prices will rise again in the medium term and the issue of energy costs will be back on the agenda. The general rule remains: our fossil energy resources are finite.

How important is lightweight construction at KraussMaffei?

Beyl: It is becoming ever more important, as plastics in the automotive sector have grown faster and faster over the last few years. We have now reached a point where plastic penetration already makes up a significant proportion. Lightweight construction is providing considerable growth stimulus for the use of plastics, and thus for the use of our plastics processing machines and technologies.


Contact

VDMA- Working Group Hybrid Lightweight Technologies
Lyoner Strasse 18
60528 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
+49 69 6603-1932
+49 69 6603-2837

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