At this year's "Composites Europe" trade fair in Stuttgart / Germany (see Plasteurope.com of 14.08.2013), the German Institute of Plastics Processing (IKV, Aachen; www.ikv-aachen.de) at RWTH Aachen University will present a new gap impregnation unit that allows automated manufacturing of a vehicle engine hood made of carbon-fibre reinforced plastics (CRP) by the integral method in only 15 minutes, the experts claim.

The innovative mould comprises a mould frame and two mould halves. The integrated sensor technology is used for process and quality assurance. The combined fixing and ejection units allow double-sided impregnation of the preform, so that complex sandwich parts can be produced in one process step. IKV and its project partners have optimised the mould surface topography to such an extent that direct surface coating of the CRP engine hood is also possible. This is a major step towards efficient production, because it means there is no need to post-treat the part before applying the surface coating. With this fibre composite structure, the IKV team has lowered the weight of the hood by 60 percent, so that it now weighs less than 5 kg.

The CRP hood was developed in a joint research project as part of the Hightech.NRW project, which is sponsored by the Ministry for Innovation, Science and Research (MIWF) of the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Alongside IKV and ika, the industrial partners involved in the project are Composite Impulse, Evonik Industries, Ford Research Centre Aachen, Henkel and Toho Tenax Europe are participating. The machine technology was designed and manufactured in cooperation with Breyer Maschinenfabrik and Hille Engineering.