Affordable and Sustainable Multi-Material Lightweight Design and Manufacturing
Composite structure made of a serie of metal layers sandwiched between fiber-reinforces plastic are called Fibre Metal Laminate (FML). The discovery of these laminate structures were a mind changing in design of the composte industries, mainly aeronautics where the structural weight reduction without reducing safety and resistance is of prime importance. This class of composites allow to achieving a broad spectrum of desired properties by combining features from different materials, thereforeproviding greater freedom to designers who want to improve aircraft performance in an affordable way. Within MatDeMa project we intend to introduce these hybrid laminates in the automotive industry by reducing manufacturing costs and encouraging recyclability.
MatDeMa focuses on cost reduction by replacing the epoxy resin by a thermoplastic (TP-FML) wich shift the manufactruring of hybrid laminates to thermoforming process instead of the conventional RTM.
Further, MatDeMa project introduced a one-step automated (robotized) inline manufacturing process for sustainable net shape Thermoplastic-Fibre Metal Laminate composites. The manufacturing process is designed to achieve a significant reduction of costs and maximizing material utilisation without reducing parts performances offering new perspectives for large-scale production of these composites for new industrial sectors. Regarding the recyclability at the end-of-life of TP-FMLs composites, a debonding-on-demand mechanism of the metal/Composite interface/joining is developed during early design and development phases of the hybrid composite. To achieve these objectives by 1) correlating the TP-FMLs material design and thermoforming process to the manufactured parts structural performances; 2) developing a robotized in-line manufacturing process evaluated with regards to specific key performance indictors linked to product quality and performance, cost and sustainability; 3) developing an integrated computational design approach tool together with a model predictive controller to support the manufacturing process and part design optimization and 4); developing a metal/TP-composite debonding-on-demand solutions to improve recycling and recovery rates during early design and development stages of the hybrid composite. The greatest potential of the proposed technology is the ability to manufacture complex and optimized and materials/structures with mechanical behaviour adapted to the application.
The composite Industry of tomorrow will depend significantly on its success in developing new weight reduced, cost-effective and recyclable products where automation is seen as a key part of the solution as manufacturing robots become more intelligent, flexible and versatile. Today, optimized and automated manufacturing processes are crucial to keep the European competitive position. This means a flexible manufacturing process with the right automation in order to achieve faster, efficient, flexible, reliable, sustainable and cost-effective product. This multi-material concept is accomplished with solutions allowing a dis-assembling or debonding process ensuring as much as possible the reuse of components or materials or the easy recyclability reducing the efforts for its disposal.
