SOCA - Sustainably Optimised Composite Automotive

绿色交通是实现零净未来的关键。聚合物复合材料是提供具有终极性能的轻量化解决方案的关键推动者。然而，目前的制造技术成本高，速度慢，并且在纤维定向分布方面受到限制，因为目前的沉积和铺设解决方案（自动纤维铺设- AFP，自动胶带铺设- ATL，定制纤维铺设- TFP）迫使笔直/测地连续纤维路径。这些问题导致了劳动密集型和长时间的生产过程，生产率低，增加了能源消耗，生产成本和环境足迹，阻碍了复合材料在汽车中的广泛采用。此外，与金属组件相比，CFRP（碳纤维增强塑料）提供了轻量级的解决方案，与金属组件相比，CFRP（碳纤维增强塑料）具有更高的嵌入式二氧化碳当量。这主要是由于碳纤维生产过程中使用的能源密集型工艺。考虑到公司和政府对未来净零排放的承诺，有效利用这些材料来平衡零部件/车辆结构质量、成本和二氧化碳排放目标是很有帮助的。SOCA项目旨在利用屡获殊荣的骨架/肉体概念，将二氧化碳优化/零净和轻质复合材料技术和汽车电动汽车（ev）的车身结构推向市场，该概念在之前的项目中得到了成功的展示。骨架/肉体概念包括使用低成本/低性能的“肉体”材料，战略性地用结构单向（UD）碳纤维带作为制造纤维增强部件（FRP）的“骨架”。这可以通过iCOMAT的快速剪切（RTS）技术实现，这是世界上第一个自动化复合材料制造工艺，可以沿着弯曲路径放置宽复合材料带而不会产生缺陷。有效的纤维转向可以使纤维与汽车应用所需的主要负载路径和复杂几何形状对齐，从而产生具有终极性能的超轻质经济高效组件。SOCA联盟将使用现有的车身结构概念，通过结构测试和模拟虚拟和物理演示来开发和验证。目标是在短期内通过小批量开发该技术，然后在成功示范和小批量采用后扩大到大批量。SOCA技术的实施有望减少车身结构的环境足迹和质量，并且由于二次系统（如电池）的额外质量节省，可以进一步降低车辆质量。此外，从回收纤维和优化UD铺设中使用低二氧化碳当量FRP，将大大减少当前汽车FRP组件的环境足迹，特别是在广泛使用碳纤维的情况下。

Green mobility is key for a Net-Zero future. Polymer composites are a critical enabler to deliver lightweight solutions with ultimate performance. However, current manufacturing technologies are costly and inherently slow as well as limited in terms of fibre orientation distribution, given that current deposition and laying-up solutions (automated fibre placement - AFP, automated tape laying - ATL, tailored fibre placement - TFP) force straight/geodesic continuous fibre-paths. These issues result in labour intensive and prolonged manufacturing processes with low-productivity, increased energy consumption, production costs and environmental footprint, hindering wide adoption of composites in automotive. Also, whilst delivering lightweight solution in comparison to metal components, CFRP (Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic) have a higher embedded CO2e compared to their metallic counterparts. This is primarily due to the energy intensive process use in the production of the carbon fibre. Considering company and government commitment to a net-zero future it is instrumental to make efficient use of such material to balance components/vehicle structure mass, cost and CO2e targets.The SOCA project aims to bring to market CO2e-optimised/net-zero and lightweight composite technologies and body-structure for automotive electric vehicles (EVs) using the award-winning skeleton/flesh concept, which was successfully demonstrated during previous projects. The skeleton/flesh concept includes the use of low-cost/low-performance ''flesh'' material strategically reinforced with structural unidirectional (UD) carbon fibre tapes acting as a ''skeleton'' for the manufacturing of fibre reinforced parts (FRP). This is possible through iCOMAT's Rapid Tow Shearing (RTS) technology the world first automated composite manufacturing process that can place wide composite tapes along curved paths without generating defects. Effective fibre-steering allows alignment of fibres with the primary load-paths and complex geometries required in automotive application, leading to ultra-lightweight cost-effective components of ultimate performance.The SOCA consortium will develop and validate through structural testing and simulation both virtual and physical demonstrators using an existing body structure concept. The aim is to exploit the technology through low-volume in the short-term before expanding to higher volumes following successful demonstration and adoption in low-volume.The implementation of SOCA technologies is expected to reduce body-structure environmental footprint, mass and can enable further vehicle mass reductions due to additionally induced mass savings in secondary systems such as batteries.Furthermore, enabling the use of low-CO2e FRP from recycled fibre and optimised UD laying, will drastically reduce the environmental footprint of current automotive FRP component, specifically when extensively using carbon fibre.