Cytec Industries Inc. has presented new automotive applications. First a carbon fiber reinforced door inner structure, manufactured from a filament wound flat blank using hot compression molding technology. Filament winding is a flexible and efficient process for making flat prepreg blanks of variable thickness. The material offers high conformability required for complex shapes, combined with mechanical properties comparable to conventional prepregs. Second a carbon-fiber reinforced tailgate manufactured from Cytec’s new rapid cure epoxy prepreg MTM 710 and with sub 3 minutes cure capability by hot compression molding. Third a complex part manufactured from uni-directional carbon fiber, utilizing an innovative automated preforming process which requires virtually no direct labor and is capable of producing parts such as structural automotive components for body-in-white structures with a sub 5 minutes tact time. Fourth a high pressure resin transfer molding (HP-RTM) demonstrator part made using Cytec’s XMTR750 two-component epoxy resin, with a sub-three-minute cure capability, a mold temperature of 130°C and with a resin injection time of less than 12 seconds. XMTR750 enables serial manufacture of body structure components.
“We are working closely together with our composite supply chain partners to develop materials, processes and application engineering that makes it possible to design and produce high performance structures in large series, with high levels of automation, and at competitive costs,” says Alex Aucken, Cytec’s Global Automotive Director.
“We are excited about the upcoming opening of our new application center in Heanor, UK, scheduled for December this year. This major investment highlights Cytec’s commitment to developing new composite products and technologies to serve the high volume production markets such as Automotive.”
Cytec will also showcase its innovative DForm Fabric Tooling prepreg, which was launched earlier this year. Cytec believes DForm will transform composite tooling manufacture by reducing tool layup times by 75%, and making composite tooling more competitive than ever against metal tooling.
Finally Cytec will promote its added value kitting services, now offered out of its new Toulouse site, France. This facility has the capacity needed for the manufacture of large vacuum bagging consumable kits for applications such as aircraft wings or wind turbine blades. Kitting brings great benefits to part manufacturers such as reduced labor cost, total production time and waste as well as improved process control and therefore part quality and repeatability.
