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CIMJune17features - nissan1
CIMJune17features - nissan1

Nissan joined the conference speaker line-up at Composites UK’s fibre-reinforced composites for automotive showcase event. Mike Richardson reports from the Warwick Manufacturing Group, Warwick University.

 

Composites UK invited Nissan to join the speaker programme of its Automotive Sector Showcase event held recently at Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), Warwick. The showcase was designed to drill down into the specific challenges for the automotive industry and open up the lines of conversation between them and SMEs who can work alongside them in increasing the use of fibre-reinforced polymer composites in high-volume vehicle production. The event, organised in partnership with WMG, also welcomed big automotive giants, such as the Ford Motor Company and Jaguar Land Rover.

In front of a full conference audience of composites professionals, Dr Shanta Desai, Nissan’s composites development lead, revealed the challenges for composite materials in the high-volume automotive manufacturing industry. According to Dr Desai, Nissan currently builds one Qashqai SUV car every 60 seconds within a production target of 90 seconds using traditional metallic-based materials. Addressing the technical challenges of high volume car manufacture from both Nissan UK and its tier 1 and 2 suppliers, Desai revealed that whilst the UK composites industry has achieved a great deal – and should celebrate its achievements – she was slightly more sceptical regarding whether composite materials can really meet the requirements of the automotive sector.

The challenges ahead

Assessing the challenges for tier 1 and 2 suppliers and matching the production rate of one car every 60 seconds – and over twenty thousand cars each month, Dr Desai says that if a car designer were to manufacture a door module from composites, then 80,000+ doors would need to be manufactured consistently each month without any defects. She queried whether it’s possible at present and whether the UK’s tier 1 and 2 suppliers are ready for it. Thinking about the challenges of cutting those parts, plus the kitting, laying up, tool preparation, pressing, trimming and finishing, whilst Dr Desai is clearly a supporter of prepreg, she cautioned that the prepreg itself still needs to be stored, moved and cut, plus the amount of waste being generated would need to be managed too.

She then moved swiftly onto examining composite production processes, stating that if Nissan was to introduce wet moulding or pressing, or high-pressure resin transfer moulding (HP-RTM), then it would still need to cut all these parts and lay them up. Therefore, Nissan’s tier 1 and 2 suppliers would need to hold huge pots of resins, which could result in health & safety issues in terms of storing so much resin, plus the transfer of resins from one point to another. This would mean redesigning the entire factory footprint to accommodate all this. For HP-RTM, Dr Desai says Nissan could employ an intermediate process of using preforms, but this would incur additional cost and add another step in the supply chain and production process. Whether it involves liquid moulding or HP-RTM, Nissan’s tier suppliers would need to make huge investments in new equipment and storage - all just to provide Nissan with a door component.

Is Nissan’s tier suppliers really ready for it at the moment? Dr Desai remains unconvinced. Every three years, Nissan likes to have a different feel and look to its range of cars as customers won’t want to buy a new car that looks exactly the same as it did 2-3 years ago. As a result, Nissan makes incremental cosmetic changes to its new launch models so that the customers feel they are buying a new car. Importantly, it means that Nissan’s tier supplier has to change all its tooling and cannot really discard the old tooling, because existing older models will still require spare parts. Some year later, Nissan may want to give one of its models a complete makeover, so another set of tools will need to be produced by the tier suppliers.

Dr Desai asked the conference audience to think about the cost and the storage of all the tooling required to keep existing and new models in production, pointing out that the tier suppliers do not only supply parts to Nissan, but to many other major OEM car builders too. What will happen if they all want to change part production to composites too?

In outlining Nissan’s challenge, Dr Desai also asked everyone to imagine the run rate of a processing line building a Qashqai every 60 seconds. What will happen if Nissan decides to start using composite materials? Nissan works within the Lightweight Excellence (LX) programme and as a part of this project, it has produced a vehicle floor for its Leaf electric vehicle. She says that although everyone thought that Nissan would have the composite Leaf floor for its flagship car – and the obvious beneficial lightweight properties that come with it, at present, a full production rate composites processing line just isn’t ready.

Dr Desai adds that the automotive sector is so used to design with metals, which is easier than making something from composites, that it would require a complete design mindset change, if it were to redesign its car parts based on composites. It would need to think about composite drapeability, fibre direction, reinforcements, how many layers are needed and material thickness – everything would need to change.

What needs to be done

In summary, Dr Desai wants to see a new fibre that is completely different, which is inexpensive and not so completely ‘over-engineered’. At present, carbon fibre is engineered for the aerospace industry, and yet its performance requirements are far too high for the automotive sector. This means it is paying the same price for its lower performance requirements.

Can we get the cost down? Can we make a fibre that is tailored to our performance requirements? Could we have a different resins and fibre sizing? Reducing weight and takt time are not the only challenges that need addressing. Instead of drapeability, perhaps the composite material could act like a ‘memory’ foam so that it just drapes very beautifully. Could the UK industry come up with these ideas to make her life so much easier? She adds that Nissan would also need to establish efficient de-bonding methods to remove the composites from the car once they need recycling. And then there is material joining techniques to consider too.

Dr Desai finishes by saying that at present, the UK composites industry has all these wonderful composite production processes but when it comes down to cost, how much is Nissan – as a series production car manufacturer – prepared to pay? The UK composites industry needs to think about the time Nissan is investing in building a car, because it cannot take any longer than 60-90 seconds per vehicle. If any composites production method takes over two minutes instead of 60 seconds, then it simply won’t be acceptable.

www.compositesuk.co.uk

Company

Composites UK

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