MELComp - Mutiplex Energy Laser Sustained Plasma Consolidation of Lightweight Novel Continuous Fibre Aluminium Matrix Composites

铝基复合材料(AMC)提供钢的强度和硬度，但具有铝的密度，使其成为减轻地面和空中车辆重量的令人兴奋的候选材料，以帮助提高效率和减少二氧化碳排放。尽管存在了几十年，但广泛使用的障碍正在减少，这些材料正在稳步进入大规模汽车生产。与碳纤维增强塑料复合材料相比，其优点包括更高的耐温性、更好的韧性、可回收利用以及与铝结构接触时不会腐蚀。该项目将研究一种生产这些材料的全新制造工艺的可行性，该工艺可以消除现有工艺的许多限制。新工艺使用多个激光将新型机织复合材料固化成潜在的大而复杂的形状，使AMC能够用于汽车车身或飞机机身等大型结构。它还将使连续AMC带材的生产成为可能，这是AMC生产工艺的第一步，也是降低成本的主要推动因素。

Aluminium Matrix Composites (AMCs) offer the strength and stiffness of steel, but with the density of aluminium, making them an exciting candidate for reducing the weight of ground and air vehicles to help improve efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions. Although in existence for many decades, the barriers to widespread uptake are ever decreasing and these materials are steadily making their way into mass vehicle production. Advantages over carbon fibre reinforced plastic composites include higher temperature resistance, better toughness, recyclability and no corrosion in contact with aluminium structures. This project will investigate the feasibility of an entirely novel manufacturing process for producing these materials which can remove many of the limitations of the existing processes. The new process uses multiple lasers to consolidate novel woven composite material into potentially large and complex shapes, enabling AMC to be used in large structures such as automotive vehicle bodies or aircraft fuselages. It will also enable production of continuous AMC strip, a first for AMC production processes and a major enabler of cost reduction.