Research Partners establish project for lightweight design

A group of eight plastics and automation industry organisations has joined forces to create lightweight fibre-composite products for serial production.

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Georg Kaufmann Formenbau AG

AMETEK GmbH Division Creaform Deutschland

Swiss mould maker Georg Kaufmann, Busslingen, has announced that it is co-operating with a range of companies in a project to develop the combined forming and back-injecting of organic sheets for the production of fibre-reinforced lightweight components with a thermoplastic matrix to the point of series production readiness.

The complexity of the project creates a need for teamwork

The shop said the Lightweight Integrated Process Application project, or LIPA, will be developed at its in-house tech centre. The company explained that the primary goal of the project is to develop and validate the manufacturing process for large-scale production by focusing on structural components and process control. “Decisive is, among others, integration of the different sub-processes as well as full process control and monitoring.”

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The host company said the steps required to produce a process that is ready for the factory floor cross many fields. “Due to the inherent complex correlations and interdependencies, there still exists a significant need for development work, which would typically be difficult for one company alone to handle. What promises to be successful, however, is an interdisciplinary co-operation that allows for a universal view of all the processes involved.”

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