Seats are safety components in vehicles such as automobiles, high-speed rails, and airplanes. Although they account for a small proportion of the total body weight, for example, the weight of a car seat only accounts for 1.5%-2% of the weight of the car body. It is also important and one of the parts with larger mass. Its contribution to the lightweight of the whole vehicle cannot be ignored. Especially in the expensive aviation aircraft, the significance of this lightweight is even more obvious.
For example, according to data provided by a British civil aviation aircraft seat manufacturer, carbon fiber composite seats are 35% lighter than ordinary aluminum seats, which can reduce the weight of a Boeing 747 with 350 passengers by 1 ton. A ton of weight can save 0.5 ton of fuel. In the long run, this data is still very impressive.
Seats on automobiles, high-speed trains, and airplanes must be designed to meet multiple requirements such as safety, comfort, complete functions, and beautiful appearance. On the basis of meeting the traditional performance requirements of the seat, the weight of the seat should be reduced as much as possible. The basic requirements of lightweight development for seats.
Performance of carbon fiber composite seat frame
Judging from the current situation, carbon fiber composite materials are one of the best materials to replace traditional metal materials such as steel and aluminum to make seat frames. Carbon fiber is well-known in the new material world for its "light weight and high strength". Its density is about 1.7g/cm3, which is only one-fifth of steel materials, but its tensile strength is above 1700MPa. Not only that, carbon fiber is also good Acid, alkali, salt and other chemical substances are well tolerated. There is no need to worry about corrosion and rust. The shock and vibration resistance is also very strong. Therefore, it is very suitable for replacing metal materials to make seat frames.
According to a company with many years of experience in the development and manufacturing of aviation carbon fiber components, the data provided shows that a seat frame made of carbon fiber composite materials can reduce weight by more than 50% than a steel frame of the same size, and can also reduce weight by 30% than an aluminum alloy frame. %about.
The use of carbon fiber composite materials to make a seat frame is mainly to inspect and measure its safety performance from the aspects of static strength, stiffness, dynamic impact and fatigue strength. In addition, due to the particularity of the space environment of the seat application, whether the seat is made of flame retardant is also an important criterion for testing and judging. Because one of the main causes of accident mortality is the death of occupants due to inhalation of toxic and harmful gases when a vehicle occurs in an accident or collision. If the interior parts of the vehicle can achieve flame-retardant, low-smoke and low-toxicity after encountering an open fire, it will be greatly This improves the personal safety of passengers.
Forming of carbon fiber composite seat frame
Seats used in aviation, automobiles, and high-speed rail require quantitative manufacturing technology with consistent specifications and stable performance. In addition to hand lay-up bag compression molding, vacuum introduction and other processes, the method of curing and molding with autoclaves is being actively tried and applied.
The process of the autoclave is to lay the prepreg on the mold layer by layer to form a stack of parts, and then press the autoclave to heat and solidify to form. When this material is used, the sliding and bending of the fibers are not easy to occur during operation, and the consistency and alignment of the fiber direction can be better controlled.
Because of the use of semi-finished prepregs, continuous paving is possible and the speed is increased, thus replacing the previous repeated and alternating fiber and resin layer-by-layer paving process, which greatly improves the production efficiency. Depending on the product, the output of the prepreg molding process is generally between several thousands to tens of thousands, which is very suitable for the production of batch carbon fiber products such as seat frames.
In addition, under the action of the autoclave pressure, the product can achieve higher fiber content and obtain higher mechanical properties. The product has higher compactness and better strength performance. The seat made by this method The skeleton is more in line with the high requirements of aviation, automobiles, high-speed rail and other special operating environments.
From experimental data to market applications, the use of carbon fiber composite materials to make seat frames in aviation, automobiles, and high-speed railways can not only achieve lightweight goals, save energy consumption, but also effectively improve the safety performance of seats.