Drilling down into the specific challenges for the automotive industry means opening up the lines of conversation between the OEMs, and SMEs working alongside them to help increase the penetration of fibre-reinforced polymer composites in high-volume vehicle production.
The large automotive giants are looking for the certainty that car production line targets won’t be compromised on the road to lightweighting demands. But whilst the composites industry has achieved a great deal, there’s still some scepticism and reluctance regarding whether composites can really meet these industry requirements.
Thinking about the challenges of cutting prepreg parts, plus kitting, laying up, tool preparation, pressing, trimming and finishing, for example, it’s important that the huge amounts of prepreg and resins need to be stored, moved and cut, plus the amount of waste being generated will need to be managed and recycled too – a colossal undertaking.
The entire factory footprint will need to be redesigned, and the OEMs’ tier suppliers will need to make huge investments in new equipment and storage - just to provide them with a basic door component, for instance.
Do we need a completely different fibre which is inexpensive and not too over-engineered? Carbon fibre is mostly specified for the aerospace industry, yet its performance requirements are far higher than that of the automotive sector. This means paying the same price for lower performance requirements.
And when it comes down to cost, how much extra is a series production car OEM prepared to pay? The composites industry has some wonderful composite production processes, but if the lightweighting trade-off means longer cycle times, we could end up being all revved up with no place to go.
Mike Richardson, editor
