Tuesday, December 11, 2018
In late November, the 14 project partners in the MoPaHyb consortium developing a modular production plant for hybrid high-performance components wrapped up their successful efforts with a two-day symposium in Pfinztal, Germany.
The symposium on November 21 and 22 at Fraunhofer ICT included presentations by the project partners, a panel discussion on “modular plant and control architecture and innovative lightweight construction technologies” and a demonstration of the reference production plant. The event was attended by more than 90 participants from the 14 industry and research partners.
Led by Dieffenbacher, the MoPaHyb consortium was launched in October 2015 to help automotive and aerospace companies, in particular, benefit from lightweight hybrid structural components based on continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastics. To enable such multi-material design, the consortium had to overcome production obstacles such as lot numbering systems and part derivatization while reducing plant investment costs.
The MoPaHyb partners developed a production plant that can be adapted to a wide range of different hybrid components. The key is a “plug and work” architecture that connects production modules to a basic control unit. Standardized communication protocols and interfaces as well as status models are used.
With this modular and rapidly convertible production line, the consortium partners demonstrated how production costs for complex hybrid components could be reduced. A new reference production plant set up at Fraunhofer ICT also showcased the innovative lightweight construction technologies of thermoplastic tape laying, consolidation, compression molding and long-fiber injection molding as well as metal insert overmolding and quality control.
Tags: Dieffenbacher, germany, modular production plant, MoPaHyb consortium
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