FOR AUTO RTM
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PLANT TOUR<br />
FIG. 6 CF + steel<br />
Mubea and MCT have<br />
developed tailor rolled blank<br />
steel B pillars with locally<br />
bonded carbon fiber patch<br />
reinforcements to match<br />
current crash performance<br />
with 20% less mass.<br />
Used as an alternative to sanding<br />
and painting<br />
DeWAL PTFE Tapes & Films —<br />
for tighter vacuum seals<br />
and cleaner mold separation.<br />
DeWAL’s pressure-sensitive PTFE tapes and films are known for<br />
tightly sealing carbon-fiber composites and cleanly releasing<br />
parts from molds.<br />
Use them to separate epoxy resins from laminates or to seal<br />
vacuum bags up to 500°F.<br />
DeWAL PTFE tapes and films offer minimal elongation and<br />
temperature-resistant silicone-based adhesion. UL-recognized<br />
204-HD films are both skived and tensilized for higher tensile<br />
strength, lower elongation and higher dielectric strength. 204-HD<br />
films range from 0.5 to 21.5 inches wide and are as long as 108<br />
feet, with tensile strength up to 13,000 psi at 500°F. They are<br />
in stock in 2, 3 and 5 mil thicknesses, as are other 36” width<br />
DeWAL tapes and films for composites.<br />
Whether you are doing open or closed molding, whether your<br />
process is lay-up, compression molding, resin transfer or<br />
continuous lamination, DeWAL will share a solution with you.<br />
Quality of Product...First<br />
Used between a mold<br />
and a carbon-fiber composite<br />
Used as peel-ply on molds<br />
15 Ray Trainor Drive<br />
Narragansett, RI 02882<br />
www.dewal.com usa1@dewal.com<br />
800-366-8356 (International: 001-401-789-9736)<br />
DW 134<br />
DW 204-HD<br />
DW 202 & DW 2000<br />
visual carbon part is typically 2 to 4<br />
plies, with unidirectional comprising<br />
the bottom pair and then only one or<br />
two woven plies for the visual surface.”<br />
Currently, the LP-<strong>RTM</strong> machines use a<br />
pressure of 10 to 20 bar with a standard<br />
cycle time of 30 to 60 minutes. Karas says<br />
that shorter cycle times are only possible<br />
for small parts, which is why the new,<br />
adjacent HP-<strong>RTM</strong> installation is heavily<br />
automated, enabling cycle times as short<br />
as 2-3 minutes. Suppliers involved in the<br />
new HP-<strong>RTM</strong> line include Cannon SpA<br />
(Peschiera Borromeo, Italy), Hennecke<br />
(Sankt Augustin, Germany) and IBG<br />
Automation (Neuenrade, Germany).<br />
Karas points out that this facility also<br />
uses MCT’s patented hollow part process,<br />
for example, in the Porsche GT3RS rear<br />
bonnet. “This is a complicated tool<br />
for <strong>RTM</strong>,” he comments, adding that<br />
designing complicated <strong>RTM</strong> tools is a<br />
unique expertise for MCT. Its hollow<br />
structural parts capability offers a wide<br />
range of lightweighting opportunities,<br />
for example in instrument panels, pillars<br />
for side impact which can also be integrated<br />
into a vehicle’s roof structure and<br />
columns that provide fixation and crash<br />
resistance under seats.<br />
After leaving the <strong>RTM</strong> area, the next<br />
stop in the long, open production hall is<br />
the prepreg press (see Fig. 4, p. 55), used<br />
to manufacture seats for Porsche. In fact,<br />
Žebrák has an assortment of prepreg<br />
presses: one 2.5m by 2.5m rated at 2,500<br />
tons, six 1.5m by 1.5m 600-ton presses<br />
and a 2m by 2m 1,500-ton press. Karas<br />
says cure time for the Porsche seats is<br />
3-30 minutes, with 20-40 parts produced<br />
per day. A special epoxy glue is robotically<br />
applied to the finished parts for<br />
58 SEPTEMBER 2015<br />
CompositesWorld
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