Integrated manufacturing of REciclable multi-material COmposites for the TRANSport sector
RECOTRANS TRIALS IN AIMPLAS
Last September first pultrusion trials at pilot plant level were carried out in AIMPLAS in collaboration with POLYMEC, ARKEMA, FRAUNHOFER ICT, SYNTHESITES, GESTAMP and STADLER partners.
Nowadays, pultrusion process is a mature technology used to manufacture profiles of composite material: glass fibre and polyester matrix. The main advantage of this out of autoclave process is the possibility of producing ad hoc profiles under a high production rate.
However, in RECOTRANS three approaches fulfil the target of the project:
- The first of these is the use of a thermoplastic resin. A new acrylic resin is being developed by ARKEMA, which will allow to recycle the resin once the composite part has been manufacture.
- The second approach of the pultrusion process in RECOTRANS is the use of the microwave radiation to cure the composite part. This method, patented by ICT and AIMPLAS (ES2387768-A1), accelerates the curing process against the convectional curing system with electrical resistances.
- Last but not least, is the assisted monitoring through integrated sensors into the die. All these developments are strongly aligned to the key enabling technologies of factories of future of the European Commission.
Next steps will consist in manufacturing a demonstrator of train sector using the technology described above at POLYMEC facilities.
» Publication Date: 03/09/2018
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement Nº 768737
