I-Corps: Manufacturing of seamless and structurally differentiated carbon-fiber reinforced composite materials

这个i-Corps项目专注于一种生产轻质碳纤维材料的新方法。航空航天和汽车制造等行业需要用轻量化的钢构件替代，以减轻车辆重量并提高燃料效率。虽然碳纤维增强复合材料作为一种替代金属部件的材料技术正在被追求，但目前这些复合材料的制造成本限制了其广泛应用。碳纤维增强复合材料主要由机织或单向碳纤维毡制成。这些板材的平面性质导致复杂三维零件的生产效率低下。需要昂贵的工具才能将板材冲压成所需的非平面形状。对于复杂的3D模板，需要大量的工时来单独地将每张板材包裹在模板周围。该团队开发了一种设计和制造复合材料的新方法，使一种无缝材料具有一系列综合性能。计算机数字控制(CNC)针织技术被用于实现复杂形状3D纺织品的自动化制造，而不需要在切割或缝制多件衣服时进行人工后处理。这些纺织品被用作高性能轻质复合材料生产中的增强材料。通过生产具有三维成形的针织预制件，调整纤维取向和密度，以及整合各种纱线类型，可以开发出具有一系列结构特性的复合材料部件。该团队的方法使碳纤维针织在各种混杂纱线成分中能够克服碳纤维的脆性及其在针织过程中容易断裂的问题。这允许生产嵌入一系列结构特性的复合部件，这意味着可以在单个部件中合成多个部件，从而减少组件中的总体部件数量。集成了3D针织功能，复合部件的“净形状”或最终所需形状可以通过一个无缝预成型完成。通过将零件设计成净形状，该工艺最大限度地减少了预成型的铺设时间，并减少了制造过程中的浪费。这项技术的最初目标是汽车制造--减少汽车内各种组件的重量和部件数量。目前，碳纤维复合材料正在一些汽车制造中使用，但最常见的是用于低产量的车辆。这极大地限制了采用，因为复合材料制造的材料成本更高，制造周期也较慢。从综合多个部件和减少制造整个组件(如门)的部件/步骤数量的角度考虑，将通过节省重量将增加的成本降低到更可接受的标准。这种方法可能对其他行业有价值，如航空航天、体育用品、家具、医疗设备和广泛的其他应用。

This I-Corps project focuses on a new method of production of light-weight carbon fiber materials.Industries such as aero-space and automotive manufacturing require light weight replacements for steel components to reduce vehicle weight and increase fuel efficiency. While carbon-fiber reinforced composites are pursued as a material-technology to replace metal parts, the current cost of manufacturing those composites restricts wide adoption.Carbon-fiber reinforced composites are largely made with woven or unidirectional carbon fiber mats. The planar nature of these sheets introduces inefficiencies in the production of complex 3-dimensional parts. Expensive tooling is required to stamp the sheets into the desired non-planar shape. For complex 3D formwork, extensive person hours are needed to individually wrap each sheet around the formwork. This team developed a new method of design and manufacture of composite materials, enabling a range of integrated properties within a single seamless material. Computer numerically controlled (CNC) knitting technology is used to allow for the automated manufacturing of complex shaped 3D textiles without the need for manual post-production in cutting or sewing multiple pieces. The textiles are used as the reinforcement in the production of high performance lightweight composite materials. Through the production of knitted preforms with 3-D shaping, tailoring of fiber orientation and density, and integration of varying yarn types, a composite part can be developed with a range of structural properties.This team's methodology enables knitting with carbon fiber in various hybrid yarn compositions to overcome the brittle nature of carbon fiber and its tendency for breakage during the knitting process. This allows for the production of composite parts which embed a range of structural properties, meaning multiple components can be synthesized in a single part, reducing the number of overall parts in an assembly. Integrating capabilities for 3D knitting, the "net-shape" or final desired shape of the composite part can be accomplished with a single seamless pre-form. By designing parts to a net shape, the process minimizes time in the lay-up of the pre-form and reduce waste in the manufacturing process.The initial target for this technology is automotive manufacturing -- to reduce the weight and number of components for various assemblies within the automobile. Currently, carbon fiber composites are being used in some automotive manufacturing, but most often with low-production vehicles. This significantly limits adoption as composite manufacturing is more expensive in material costs and slow in the cycle times for manufacturing. Thinking in terms of synthesizing multiple parts and reducing the number of parts/steps for manufacturing of a whole assembly, such as the door, would reduce the increased cost by weight saved, to more acceptable standards. Such an approach can be valuable to other industries such as aerospace, sporting goods, furniture, medical devices, and a broad range of other applications.