Thermoplastic composites are favored for their light weight and high strength. However, due to the existing production processes such as slow production, high prices and labor and waste deficiencies, the use of thermoplastic composites in the mainstream market is still Lag.
To promote the widespread use of these advanced materials in multiple industries, the world’s leading diversified chemical company, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), invested in the first composite material industry to produce 'continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites' (CFRTC) on a large scale. 'Automatic digital system for strip products.
SABIC presented the 'Composite Digital Production System' in Hall 5 Stand L84 at the '2018 French JEC Composites Exhibition' (JEC World 2018) held on March 6th-8th. The automated digital production line was developed by Dutch composite manufacturer Airborne. , Siemens provides technical support. The system is expected to be put into use in early 2019. It aims to provide customers with customized functions - through cutting-edge technology and processes, to shorten the cycle time and reduce production costs.
'Production of high-quality, custom-made thermoplastic composite parts quickly and in large quantities at a customer's affordable price will soon become a reality,' said Gino Francato, global business manager for composites at SABIC. 'We are about to launch a composite production line for digital composite materials. The industry's first large-scale production plan is an important step towards achieving the above goals.
Airborne CEO Arnovan Mourik added, "With Airborne's technological innovation and more than 20 years of experience in composite manufacturing processes, we will use Industrial 4.0 automation technology and data exchange principles to develop composite material production lines. This will enable SABIC's customers to make full use of the light Quality, high-strength CFRTC materials to develop, develop and produce unique, differentiated products.
Fast and fully automatic
The new large-scale production line facility was built in the Netherlands by Airborne using Siemens' factory automation and digital operating software. It can produce multiple thermoplastic composite laminates per minute, enabling annual production of over one million parts.
'To achieve such rapid and reliable production of composite materials, close cooperation between Airborne, SABIC and Siemens is essential', said John O'Connor, director of professional engineering software product and market strategy at Siemens. 'Our common desire is to achieve flexibility through , The increase in productivity and innovation speeds up the competitiveness of Airborne and SABIC. Therefore, digitization is the key to a breakthrough in production technology.
In terms of flexibility, the system can be operated remotely, and multiple laminates of different sizes can be produced at the same time. The concept of machine learning will be used to fine-tune the product quality, and adaptive process control can be used to modify settings without stopping the machine.
The composite digital production line will be backed up by SABIC's 'Centre of Excellence' in the Netherlands with technical support for predictive engineering capabilities. UDMAXTM tape forecasting projects based on computer aided engineering (CAE) software include the impact of the production process , Use material data and material modeling (such as elastic performance and damage initiation/fracture behavior) to create a model to simulate the performance of composites during application.
Meet the urgent needs of the home electronics industry
Composite digital production line will launch its first generation technology to meet the urgent needs of the home electronics industry.
SABIC's composite digital production line can produce lightweight, high modulus, low warping customized laminates in accordance with laminate thickness, size, layering parameters and desired properties. These laminates are made of carbon fiber reinforced polycarbonate composites. Made, will be used to produce laptop enclosures.
Customized laminates made of carbon fiber reinforced polycarbonate composites will be used to produce laptop enclosures.
Francato concludes, “Customers are increasingly expecting to produce lighter, stronger, and thinner products on a large scale. In the near future, by satisfying this demand from our customers, we can enable our customers to take full advantage of laminate materials, While reducing the weight of the device housing, it also increases design flexibility and reduces cycle time - more efficiently than in the past.