SOCA - Sustainably Optimised Composite Automotive

绿色移动性是零净值未来的关键。聚合物复合材料是提供具有终极性能的轻量级解决方案的关键推动因素。然而，考虑到当前的沉积和铺设解决方案(自动纤维铺设-AFP、自动布带-ATL、定制纤维铺设-TFP)强制直/测地线连续光纤路径，当前的制造技术成本高、固有速度慢，并且在纤维取向分布方面受到限制。这些问题导致劳动密集型和制造过程延长，生产率低，能源消耗增加，生产成本和环境足迹增加，阻碍了复合材料在汽车中的广泛采用。此外，尽管与金属部件相比，CFRP(碳纤维增强塑料)提供了更轻的解决方案，但与其金属部件相比，CFRP(碳纤维增强塑料)具有更高的嵌入二氧化碳当量。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净零未来的承诺，有效利用这种材料来平衡零部件/车辆结构质量、成本和CO2E目标是很有意义的。SOCA项目旨在将CO2E优化/净零和轻量化的复合技术和车身结构推向市场，使用获奖的骨架/肌肉概念，这在以前的项目中得到了成功的展示。骨架/纤维的概念包括使用低成本/低性能的“纤维”材料，战略上使用结构单向(UD)碳纤维带作为制造纤维增强部件(FRP)的“骨架”。这是通过iCOMAT的快速丝束剪切(RTS)技术实现的，这是世界上第一个自动化复合材料制造工艺，可以沿着弯曲的路径放置宽复合材料胶带，而不会产生缺陷。有效的纤维转向允许纤维与汽车应用中所需的主要加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、高性价比组件。SOCA联盟将使用现有的车身结构概念，通过结构测试和模拟开发和验证虚拟和物理演示。其目的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展到更大容量。SOCA技术的实施预计将减少车身结构的环境足迹和质量，并由于电池等二次系统的额外诱导质量节省而进一步减少车辆质量。此外，能够使用来自回收纤维的低CO2E玻璃钢和优化的UD铺设，将显著减少当前汽车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.