Design and manufacturing of direct mirco- and long-fibre lightweight composites

汽车工业是长纤维热塑性（LFT）复合材料的核心市场之一，因为它们具有固有的优点，如重量效率、结构尺寸稳定性、高强度、增强模量、上级抗蠕变性和耐热性。为了降低成本、燃料消耗和车辆重量，总是存在着创新和变革的市场压力。在汽车工业中，直接长纤维热塑性塑料（0-LFT）复合和模塑是制造车身结构件和车身外板的新的市场趋势。虽然0-LFT技术的制造方法已经取得了许多进展，特别是在疲劳性能和阻尼性能方面，但它在北美汽车工业中的应用仍然有限。这主要是因为它需要高吞吐量生产（500，000个单位或更多）才具有成本效益。在0-LFT复合工艺中使用天然纤维受到连续长纤维缺乏可用性和缺乏汽车工业确定的要求（如热降解和相容性）的阻碍。本研究的目的是通过开发一种独特的、高产量的微纤维-直接长纤维加工技术（MF-DLFT）来开发高性能的纤维素纤维增强复合材料。该技术将标准DLFT与Univer开发的纤维素微纤维复合材料加工技术相结合。多伦多大学（U of Toronto）的一家工厂，使用可再生和石化聚合物生产汽车部件，并使用连续矿物纤维和不连续天然纤维填充。目前，拟议中的技术超出了加拿大所有主要研究机构的能力，因此，需要与福特汽车公司密切合作，加拿大领先的汽车制造商之一。这项研究的结果将是一个量子飞跃，在开发新的汽车零部件，减少零件，并将有利于福特，帮助他们实现他们的愿景，利用最大量的高强度复合材料从可再生资源。

The automotive industry is one of the core markets for long-fibre thermoplastic (LFT) composites because oftheir inherent advantages such as weight-effectiveness, structural dimensional stability, high strength, enhancedmodulus, superior creep resistance, and heat resistance. There is always market pressure for innovation andrevolution to reduce cost, fuel consumption, and weight of the vehicle. Direct long-tibre thermoplastic (0-LFTcompounding and molding is the new market trend in the automotive industry for manufacturing structuralbody parts as well as exterior body panels. While numerous advances have been made in the manufacturingmethods of 0-LFT technology, particularly in fatigue behavior and damping properties, it still finds limitedapplications in the North American automotive industry. This is mostly because it requires high throughputproduction (500,000 units or more) to be cost-effective. Use of natural fibres in the 0-LFT compoundingprocess has been impeded by the lack of availability of continuous long fibre and the lack of requirements(such as thermal degradation, and compatibility) identified by the automotive industry. The objective of thisresearch is to develop high performance cellulose fibre reinforced composites by developing a unique and highthroughput Microfibre-Direct Long Fibre processing Technology (MF-DLFT). This technology integratesstandard DLFT with the cellulose microfibre composite processing technology developed at the Univer.$ity ofToronto (U ofT) to produce automotive parts using renewable and petrochemical-based polymers, reinforcedwith continuous mineral fibres and discontinuous natural fibres. At this moment, the proposed technology iscurrently beyond the means of all major Canadian research institutions, and thus, needs close workingcollaboration with Ford Motor Co., one of the leading automotive manufacturers in Canada. The outcome ofthis research will be a quantum leap forward in developing new automotive components by reducing the partweight and will benefit Ford by helping them to fulfill their vision of utilizing the maximum amount of highstrength composite materials from renewable resources.