Lightweight Automotive Fibre-Steered Structures (LeAFS)

LeAFS专注于自动化制造工艺的开发和商业化，旨在以具有成本效益的方式将复合材料的轻量化优势引入汽车行业。在LeAFS期间，iCOMAT将使用其新颖的连续丝束剪切制造技术来制造需要使用纤维转向的复合材料结构部件的预制件。这些通常是高度弯曲的，并且将通过冲压2D纤维转向带和随机纤维取向材料（例如片状模塑料（SMC））的组合预成型件来制造。在第一阶段项目中，将制造和评估纤维转向复合材料预制件。由于轻量化技术对于实现绿色移动性至关重要，LeAFS是在英国开发自动化制造能力以生产超轻量化汽车部件的关键。

LeAFS focuses on the development and commercialisation of an automated manufacturing process, aiming at introducing the light-weighting benefits of composites in the automotive sector, in a cost-efficient way. During LeAFS, iCOMAT will use its novel manufacturing technology of Continuous Tow Shearing to manufacture preforms for composite structural components that require the use of fibre steering. These are often highly curved and will be manufactured by stamping a combined preform of 2D fibre-steered tapes and randomly-fibre-orientated material such as sheet-moulding-compound (SMC). In this Phase 1 project, the fibre-steered composite preforms will be manufactured and evaluated. As light-weighting technologies are crucial to enable green mobility, LeAFS is key to develop an automated manufacturing capability in the UK to produce ultra-lightweight automotive parts.