2-D Forming of Low Cost Steered Fibre Laminates

到2020年，先进复合材料市场预计价值约170亿GB，其中汽车行业是第二大增长行业(仅次于风能)，但仍远未达到其巨大的增长潜力；先进复合材料产品的生产成本居高不下，仍是其更广泛开发的主要障碍。政府关于减排的立法是整个运输部门的一个重要驱动力，实现规定目标的一种方法是用高度优化的轻质先进聚合物复合材料部件取代相对较重的金属部件。因此，迫切需要解决先进聚合物复合材料制造的经济可行性，并实现其全部重量和节省燃料的潜力。拟议的项目旨在通过引入一条雄心勃勃的低成本路线来制造高度优化的先进复合材料结构，从而为这一总体目标做出贡献。生产包含非线性纤维路径的“导向纤维层压板”的能力，在先进复合材料结构的设计空间中创造了一种阶段性的变化。设计者能够将应力集中从孔洞和插件重新定位，提高层合板的抗屈曲和失效能力，并增强层合板对振动的动态响应。最终，这可以带来更轻、更优化的结构，用于航空航天和汽车部门，提高燃料效率，并为整个运输部门降低成本和减少排放的更广泛目标做出贡献。拟议项目的目的是实施和展示一种新的、颠覆性的制造工艺，该工艺可以生产低成本、高质量的转向纤维层压板，而不需要使用昂贵的、资本密集型的自动纤维铺放机(当前的解决方案)。新的工艺最好描述为二维成形；为了支持这种新的制造工艺，将开发一套定制的计算机辅助设计和制造软件。如果要成功地实现二维成形而不会导致变形的双轴薄板的严重起皱和屈曲，数字化制造的计算工具是必不可少的。降低成本将有效地将光纤转向技术带到更广泛的应用中，增加其经济影响，并为更广泛的工业基础带来新的制造能力，英国在这一重要制造领域处于领先地位。

By 2020, the advanced composite market is predicted to be worth around £17 billion, with automotive the second largest growth sector (after wind energy) but still falling far short of its enormous growth potential; the high cost of production for advanced composite products is still a major obstacle to their wider exploitation. Government legislation on the reduction of emissions is an important driver across the transport sector and one way to achieve prescribed targets is through the substitution of relatively heavy metallic components with highly optimised light-weight advanced polymer composite parts. Consequently, there is an urgent need to address the economic viability of manufacturing with advanced polymer composites and realise their full weight and fuel saving potential. The proposed project aims to contribute to this overarching goal by introducing an ambitious low-cost route to manufacturing highly optimised advanced composite structures. The ability to produce 'steered-fibre laminates' containing non-linear fibre paths, creates a step change in the design space for advanced composite structures. The designer is able to reposition stress concentrations away from holes and inserts, improve a laminate's resistance to buckling and failure, and to enhance a laminate's dynamic response to vibrations. Ultimately this can lead to lighter, more optimised structures for use in the aerospace and automotive sectors, enhancing fuel efficiency and contributing to the broader goals of reduced cost and lower emissions across the transport sector. The aim of the proposed project is to implement and demonstrate a novel and disruptive manufacture process that can produce low-cost high-quality steered-fibre laminates, without use of expensive, capital intensive automated fibre placement machines (the current solution). The new process is best described as 2-D forming; in order to support this novel manufacture process, a custom-designed suite of computer aided design and manufacture software will be developed. Computational tools for digital manufacturing are essential if 2-D forming is to be successfully achieved without inducing severe wrinkling and buckling of the deforming biaxial sheet. Reducing cost will effectively bring fibre-steering technology to a broader range of applications, increasing its economic impact and bringing new manufacturing capabilities to a wider industrial base, with the UK leading the way in this important area of manufacturing.