Cel
Approximately 1,000,000 tonnes of fibre reinforced
plastic (FRP) products are moulded per annum in Western
Europe. Over 90% of these FRP products are manufactured
using thermosetting resin systems, such as polyester
resin, which are regarded as hazardous substances,
requiring careful precautions for the storage, handling
and use of these materials if the risk of fire and ill
health arising from exposure is to be avoided (Ref:
Appendix 1). In particular, styrene vapour generated from
the laying up of fibre reinforced polyester resin
structures using the contact moulding process (which
accounts for 24% of all FRP manufactured products' must
be controlled to an already strict limit of on average
50ppm (Ref: Appendix 2). A further reduction of this is
currently under discussion within the European
Commission. This styrene emission problem, which affects
over 10,000 companies (predominately SME's) across
Europe4, is exacerbated in the marine industry because
companies such as Halmatic Ltd. are generally laying up,
by hand, large surface area structures, such as boat
hulls, in open moulds. The styrene emission problem is
also exacerbated in countries such as Denmark because
they have the strictest legislation in the whole of
Europe. (A maximum limit of 25ppm). The overall objective
of this project is to totally eliminate the major
environmental and heaith and safety problems associated
with existing thermosetting based resin systems. This
will be achieved by developing low cost, solvent free,
thermoplastic composite materials, that can be moulded
under low pressure (ie. by hand at 1 atmosphere) to form
lower cost but higher performance large surface area
composite structures with the following advantages:
Impact resistance, toughness, recyclability, ease of
repair and joining. In addition to these environmental
and technical benefits, other specific demonstrable
objectives include
to reduce manufacturing cycle times by up to 50%,
to achieve manufacturing cost savings of up to 25%,
to develop 4 demonstrator components which meet
operating requirements in terms of safety, fire and
fatigue etc.
The approach of this research and development project is
to focus on four relatively large surface area
demonstrator structures, such as a boat hull,
refrigerator truck panel, flag pole and wind turbine
blade because they represent 4 different industrial
sectors and encompass the following features:
* Complex shape and design
* High mechanical performance and durability requirements
* Large surface area with thickness variations
* Stringent health and safety issues during manufacture
* Stringent design requirements notably in terms of fire
resistance, creep and fatigue
* Aesthetics and surface finish
Therefore by successfully demonstrating the use of these
new materials in such these arduous, highly legislative
and cost conscious application areas it is anticipated
that these new materials and processes will become more
widely accepted in other general purpose FRP applications
including leisure, construction, automotive tc. Whilst
unreinforced thermopiastic craft exist, a review of the
literature and patent databases has shown that the work
outlined in this proposal is unique and new on an
international basis. Background research has also been
carried out by Vetrotex and Euro Projects and a patent
application filed in the UK5.
The consortium comprises of a manufacturer of large FRP
marine structures (Halmatic), an independent
certification testing and design authority (Lloyd's
Register), a manufacturer of FRP refrigerator truck
panels (Norfrig), a FRP flag pole producer (GT
Glasfiber), a FRP wind turbine manufacturer (LM
Glasfiber) specialist materials, process development and
exploitation company (Euro Projects (LTTC) Ltd.), a
thermoplastic composite materials supplier (Vetrotex
International) and a university (IKV Aachen) specialising
in composite materials, efficient heating methods,
modelling and technology transfer.
Dziedzina nauki
Temat(-y)
Zaproszenie do składania wniosków
Data not availableSystem finansowania
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsKoordynator
SO14 5QF Southampton
Zjednoczone Królestwo