A life cycle analysis of novel lightweight composite processes: Reducing the environmental footprint of automotive structures

Abstract

In this study, three novel thermoplastic impregnation processes were analyzed towards automotive applications. The first process is thermoplastic compression resin transfer molding in which a glass fiber mat is impregnated in through thickness by a thermoplastic polymer. The second process is a melt-thermoplastic Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) process in which the glass fibers are impregnated in plane with the help of a spacer. The third process, stamp forming of hybrid bicomponent fibers, coats the fibers individually during the glass fiber production. The coated fibers are used to produce a fabric, which is then further processed by stamp forming. These three processes were compared in a life cycle analysis (LCA) against conventional resin compression resin transfer molding with either glass or carbon fibers and metal processes with either steel or aluminum that can be new, partly or fully recycled using the case study of the production, life and disposal of a car bonnet.The presented LCA includes the main phases of the process: extraction and preparation of the raw materials, production and preparation of the mold, process, and energy losses. To include the life of the analyzed bonnet, the amount of diesel that is used to drive the weight of the bonnet for 300 ′ 000 km is calculated. In this LCA, the disposal of the bonnet is integrated by analyzing the used energy for the recycling and the incineration. The results show the potential of the developed thermoplastic impregnation processes producing automobile parts, as the used energy producing a thermoplastic bonnet is in the same range as the steel production.

Novel tooling for direct melt impregnation of textile with variotherm injection moulding: Methodology and proof of concept

“…The plate thickness was set to a value of 2 mm, following the case study where a car bonnet is to be produced with TP-CRTM. 6 Note that since the impregnation time quadratically increases with the part thickness, this latter is of great importance for TP-CRTM. Following the findings of Studer, 17 the target fibre volume content was set to 65%.…”

“…4,5 In addition to the weight saving potential of composites, their use also leads to a lower environmental impact as demonstrated by Wegmann et al for the case study of a composite car hood. 6 A broader implementation of composites in automotive applications however still requires further reductions in production costs, cycle times and improved recyclability.…”

Investigating and Predicting the Effects of Fiber Chemical Composition and Treatment on the Mechanical Properties of Natural Fiber Composites by Response Surface Method

“…Their light weight, low cost, great specific strength, degradability features and the flexibility in design have all had a considerable influence on the business of green products. As a result, bio-composite materials have been implemented in several industrial applications including automotive, aerospace, electronics, medical and packaging applications [1][2][3][4]. Natural fiber composites are potential bio-based materials that contain lignocellulosic fibers as reinforcement.…”

The Mechanical Characterization of Welded Hybrid Joints Based on a Fast-Curing Epoxy Composite with an Integrated Phenoxy Coupling Layer

“…Reliable and cost-effective joining technologies for fiber-reinforced composite materials provide a great potential to significantly reduce weight, fuel consumption, and, consequently, CO 2 emissions [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. Therefore, it is essential to develop and implement new joining technologies to further improve the manufacture and assembly of structural composite parts.…”