Sebastian Schmidhuber and Stephen Lambert (second and third left) and the AMRC Development Engineers, Davide Melis, Darren Wells and Ricky Rowett (from the left)
KM AMRC
The Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) at the University of Sheffield is using a high-pressure resin transfer moulding system from KraussMaffei to develop its research.
The AMRC is developing new technologies and applications for fibre-reinforced lightweight construction in industries such as automotive and aerospace.
It will use KraussMaffei’s RimStar Compact for the high-pressure resin transfer moulding (HP-RTM) process as it looks to drastically reduce cycle times and processes ready for large-scale production of fibre-reinforced parts.
The RimStar Compact enables use of multiple mixing heads for the first time, which KraussMaffei says provides clear advantages in precision and cost-efficiency.
“The specific selection of two dosing units and the corresponding mixing heads allows for a particularly precise mixing of the resin system,” explained Sebastian Schmidhuber, Head of Development for Reaction Process Machinery at KraussMaffei.
“This makes the system the first of its kind in which multiple mixing heads are used in the full scope of functions in order to enable a perfect cavity fill. Even materials that are highly reactive and fast-reacting at the same time—which are increasingly in demand for the HP-RTM process—can be reliably processed.”
Accroding to Darren Wells, Research Engineer at AMRC, processing such highly reactive matrix materials opens up entirely new development opportunities for composite materials and components with more intricate geometric structures.
"The curing times are critical here. Using highly reactive systems, they can be reduced down to three minutes. With such short times, they offer great opportunities for the manufacturing industry," he explained.
KraussMaffei says another advantage of its new RimStar Compact, from both a process technology and cost-effectiveness standpoint, is its compact design. Matrix material injection and curing take place in one and the same mould. This, it says, results in a consistently high quality of the components and in high process reproducibility.
Stephen Lambert, RPM Business Manager at KraussMaffei UK, says that the modular design of the RimStar Compact means it can quickly meet the specific needs of its customers such as AMRC. “We provide them with a unique research and development landscape to test and verify the cycle time and cost savings advantages of the HP-RTM process live," Lambert commented.
"We are looking forward to further future collaboration and development projects at the AMRC,” he continued. “Particularly in the area of vehicle manufacturing and aviation, we see great potential. As an outcome of the collaboration, we have recently received the first series production order of a premium British automaker."