Integrated manufacturing of REciclable hybrid metalthermoplastic COmposites for the TRANSport sector.

Project Information

RECOTRANS

Grant agreement ID: 768737

DOI

10.3030/768737

Project closed

EC signature date 18 July 2017

Start date 1 October 2017

End date 30 September 2021

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Advanced manufacturing and processing

Total cost

€ 4 525 683,75

EU contribution

€ 4 525 683,75

Coordinated by

AIMPLAS - ASOCIACION DE INVESTIGACION DE MATERIALES PLASTICOS Y CONEXAS
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - RECOTRANS (Integrated manufacturing of REciclable hybrid metalthermoplastic COmposites for the TRANSport sector.)

Reporting period: 2020-04-01 to 2021-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Transport represents almost a quarter of Europe's greenhouse gas emissions and is the main cause of air pollution in urban areas. Emissions of air pollutants from transport that harm our health and our environment need to be drastically reduced without delay and thus be aligned with the European targets and directives.
Lowering the transport weight not only improves fuel efficiency, reducing air pollutants but also increases vehicle performances, decreasing the load on the brakes and suspension systems and facilitates the introduction of the electric vehicles. Multi-material composites give transport manufacturers the possibility to reduce weight and to build parts with distinct shapes and visual appearances in their vehicles. However, manufacturing companies have been reluctant to introduce multi-material composites into major vehicles components because of high cost, long production times and lack of recyclability.
RECOTRANS project will integrate unconventional manufacturing technologies such as microwave (MW) radiation and laser joining in current resin transfer moulding (RTM) and pultrusion production lines to be able to obtain cost-effective recyclable multi-material composites suitable for the transport sector at high production rates, reducing cost and energy consumption compared to current composites materials.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

RECOTRANS project has reached its end after 42 months of implementation.
Demonstrators’ design for automotive, railway and truck sectors has been accomplished in WP1, already finished, taking into account transport industry requirements, legal issues, standards, safety considerations and new manufacturing processes demands. Results from adapted acrylic resin characterization (WP2) and from multi-materials characterization obtained at pilot plant level (WP3 & WP4) were used in simulation programs to design the final demonstrators’ parts.
In WP2, acrylic thermoplastic resin was adapted to develop a new resin suitable for the integration of MW radiation and laser joining in RTM and pultrusion production line. WP2 was also devoted to the development of laser assisted metal-polymer joining (LAMP).
Pilot plant tests using equipment available at pilot plant level have been done in WP3 & WP4 to evaluate multi-material properties with the microwave technology. Moreover, in these workpackages the design and development of auxiliary equipment for MW integration such as demonstrator moulds and in-process monitoring and control system for RTM (WP3) and pultrusion (WP4) was carried out to reach a full integration in production line in WP5 & WP6 including LAMP developed in WP2.
For the full integration of MW-RTM and laser joining (WP5), RTM mould and the MW tool were used, and first demo pieces of truck and automotive sector were succesfully produced with and without MW together with the first integration trials of the MW-RTM technology including process monitoring.
For the full integration of pultrusion and laser joining (WP6) the mould and pultrusion die integration was produced and demonstrators manufactured.
Technical results are aligned with three main drivers: Efficiency&Integration, Sustainability and Quality.
- Efficiency & Integration
- MW curing methodology for RTM and Pultrusion process was defined and integrated
- Laser assisted metal-polymer joining improvements were achieved
- Sustainability
- Thermoplastic acrylic resin formulation was optimised for the MW curing application
- Recycling feasibility was assessed
- LCA iresultes were analysed
- Quality
- Monitoring and control system strategy was defined
Technical developments were complemented with: environmental, economic and social analysis; innovation management, business plan and dissemination; and project management.
Different dissemination activities were performed including RECOTRANS website http://www.recotransproject.eu/,Twitter and LinkedIn and also some publications and conferences.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The main problem when using thermoplastic matrices for high performance composites for structures or large parts is the difficulty in impregnating the fibrous reinforcement with the high viscosity resin. However, RECOTRANS project will overcome the drawbacks by obtaining multi-materials composites from in-situ polymerization of acrylic resins in low pressure processes, low cycle time production and low equipment investment introducing thermoplastic resin in conventional thermoset processing technologies such as RTM or pultrusion (for continuous profiles fabrication) to obtain cost-effective, high performance and recyclable multi-materials composites.
The use of MW irradiation in curing reactive thermoplastic composites is a less explored field. However, literature also reports the benefits of using MW in polymerization of thermoplastics, decreasing the time considerably, producing the same final quality with lower energy consumption. What is more, FGH and AIMPLAS had patented a process to heat homogeneously materials through high frequency electromagnetic radiation (EP2046093)
In RECOTRANS, microwave susceptors will be mixed with the acrylic resin to improve the interaction to the microwave radiation and transform the irradiated energy into heat in the whole volume of the multi-material composite in order to integrate MW technologies in RTM and pultrusion production lines to reduce cycle times and energy consumption for multi-materials composites manufacturing in transport sector.
Additionally, one of the main challenges in the use of polymer based composite materials in industry is joining metallic to polymeric parts in hybrid structures, since both materials possess significantly different physical, chemical and mechanical properties. Thus, one of the main objectives of RECOTRANS project will be the development of laser joining for multi-material metal-thermoplastic composites in industrial applications in the field of lightweight structures for the transport industry.
Furthermore, RECOTRANS aims to develop a DC-based system measuring the electrical resistivity of multi-material composites (acrylic resins, foam core, honey comb and carbon and glass fibre reinforcement) and advance control systems during MW manufacturing in pultrusion and RTM lines.
RECOTRANS multi-material composites will be suitable for the substitution of traditional metallic parts in the trucks, automotive and railway applications, which will reduce their weight, fuel consumption, operation cost and emissions and thus increase their production rates.
Specifically, the metal output, (mainly steel and aluminium) for the European transport industry is over 44 million tonnes of steel a year, accounting for 20% of the global output. RECOTRANS project aims at substituting 2.7 million of components of the metallic components for the innovative multi-material composites.
In addition, the use of the developed multi-material composites, which will be recyclable, means an important reduction of the dependence on fossil resources, without compromising the quality of the derived products. This advantage will allow reducing the impact on the product end-life, in comparison to non-recyclable composites from petrochemical resources.

Overview of RECOTRANS key drivers

Overview of RECOTRANS Project