Natural Fibre Reinforced Thermoplastics for Injection Moulding (NAT-IM)

长纤维增强热塑性塑料(LFTs)的注射成型是真正能够实现主流汽车和消费品行业所需的高产量的为数不多的聚合物复合材料技术之一。然而，目前用于LFTs的玻璃纤维增强材料重量大、脆性大、耗能大，从而影响了LFTs的轻量化潜力、可加工性和可持续性。作为玻璃的优秀替代品，NetComposites开发了一种基于亚麻、黄麻或大麻等天然纤维的LFT材料。这些纤维比玻璃纤维轻40%，但具有类似的硬度。它们也不那么脆弱，也更具可持续性。到目前为止，NetComposites已经开发了一条生产天然纤维LFT材料的中试生产线。他们的技术性能已经在一家汽车零部件制造商的成功试验中得到了证明。然而，它们商业化的一个障碍仍然存在--当前的制造工艺成本太高，而且缺乏规模。因此，该项目的目的是开发一种改进的制造工艺，以使天然纤维LFT材料的供应成本和产量与现有的玻璃LFT材料相似。

The injection moulding of long-fibre-reinforced thermoplastics (LFTs) is one of the few polymer composite material technologies that is genuinely capable of realising the high production volumes required by the mainstream automotive and consumer goods sectors. However, the glass fibre reinforcements that are currently used in LFTs are heavy, brittle and energy intensive, thereby compromising the lightweighting potential, processability and sustainability of LFTs. As a superior alternative to glass, NetComposites has developed an LFT material based on natural fibres such as flax, jute or hemp. These are 40% lighter than glass fibres whilst having a similar stiffness. They are also much less brittle and much more sustainable. To date NetComposites has developed a pilot line for producing the natural fibre LFT materials. Their technical performance has been proven through successful trials at an automotive component manufacturer. However, a barrier to their commercialisation remains - the current manufacturing process is both too costly and lacks scale. The aim of this project, therefore, is to develop a modified manufacturing process to allow the natural fibre LFT materials to be supplied at a similar cost and in similar volumes to the incumbent glass-LFTs.