Lightweight Automotive Fibre-Steered Structures (LeAFS)

LeAFS专注于自动化制造工艺的开发和商业化，旨在以经济高效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牵引剪切制造技术来制造需要使用纤维转向的复合结构部件的预成形件。这些通常是高度弯曲的，将通过冲压二维纤维导向带和随机纤维导向材料（如片状模塑化合物（SMC））的组合预制体来制造。在这个一期项目中，将生产和评估纤维导向复合预成型材料。由于轻量化技术对实现绿色出行至关重要，LeAFS是在英国开发自动化制造能力以生产超轻量化汽车零部件的关键。

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.