Vacuum-assisted pultrusion of bio-composite injection molding precursors for the automotive industry

法规迫使汽车行业不断减少其产品的环境足迹。这推动了低环境足迹新材料和工艺的发展。一种方法是在热塑性聚合物中添加天然纤维来增强汽车内部部件。可再生纤维，如亚麻或大麻，赋予塑料部件高机械性能，同时也提供明显的环境效益。然而，将亚麻纤维与聚合物混合是具有挑战性的。很少有技术能够同时实现(i)聚合物和纤维的紧密混合以及（ii）维持汽车工业所需的产量。我们已经开发了一项新技术，并申请了专利，多模真空辅助拉挤，可以潜在地解决这两个方面的挑战。利用该技术，我们生产出了配筋性好、孔隙率低的亚麻/PP棒。这些高质量的棒可以制成球团，用作注射成型的前体。随着福特汽车公司等汽车原始设备制造商的兴趣，我们打算证明我们的技术在汽车工业生物复合注射前体生产中的适用性。为了实现这一目标，在这一年里，我们将彻底表征组分，亚麻和聚丙烯。然后，我们将研究拉挤模具形状和涂层，以加快我们的生产速度到1米/分钟以上。挤压生物复合材料将被制成颗粒，并用作注射成型的前体。这个项目将使我们能够向汽车行业的主要参与者展示我们的技术在生产绿色汽车方面的可扩展性。

The automotive industry is forced by regulations to constantly reduce the environmental footprint of their products. This drives the development of new materials and process with lower environmental footprint. One approach consists in adding natural fibers to thermoplastic polymers to reinforce vehicle interior components. Renewable fibers such as flax, or hemp, confer high mechanical properties to plastic components while also providing obvious environmental benefits. However, blending flax fibers to polymers is challenging. Few techniques are able to both achieve (i) intimate mixing of polymers and fibers as well as (ii) sustaining production volumes needed for the automotive industry. We have developed and patented a new technology, the multi-mold vacuum assisted pultrusion, that can potentially solve both aspects of the challenge. Using this technology, we have produced flax/PP rods with good reinforcement distribution and low porosity. These high-quality rods can be pelletized and used as injection molding precursors. Following interest from automotive OEMs such as Ford Motor Co., we intend to demonstrate the applicability our technology to the production of biocomposite injection precursors for the automotive industry. To achieve this goal in this one year, we will thoroughly characterize the constituents, flax and polypropylene. Then we will investigate pultrusion mold shapes and coating to accelerate our production speed to more than 1 m/min. The pultruded biocomposites will be pelletized and used as precursors for injection molding. This project will allow us to demonstrate to key automotive industry players the scalability of our technology for the production of greener vehicles.