MODELLING OF MANUFACTURING PROCESSES BY FEA-METHOD FOR THE PRODUCTION OF NATURAL FIBER-REINFORCED PLASTICS

摘要

In recent years a growing demand for natural fiber-reinforced plastic components and structures has been observed. One important area of application is transportation, particularly in the automotive industry. Due to market demand, innovative process technologies for fast, cost-effective and quality-driven manufacture of natural fiber-reinforced plastic components is required. This paper will focus on the development of technologies for automised manufacturing of NFRP-components with resin infusion processes. At present NFRP-components are manufactured automatically but without flexibility concerning the deviations of material properties or part geometries. This lack of control in manufacturing results in long cycle times, low process control and high costs. The Bremen Institute for Engineering Design (BIK) is developing and improving machine and process technologies for automised textile handling. The handling system has to meet the requirements of large, limp textile material. The authors have mutually developed methods for the simplified simulation of textiles. The simulation supports the evaluation of textiles and handling devices concerning the ability for better control in manufacturing. To meet these requirements, a simulation of the textile material with the "Finite Element Analysis" method supports the part and process design by reducing developing time and costs. For this purpose, the authors showed a simplified model with a reduced set of material data which is required for the FEA-model.