On September 17, SGL Carbon (Meitingen, Germany) and Fraunhofer IGCV (Augsburg, Germany) announced that the Fiber Placement Technology Research and Development Center (FPC) jointly created by them was officially put into operation. The goal of the center is to incorporate fiber placement technology. Mass applications in various industries. The new center is headquartered at the SGL factory in Meitingen. System manufacturers Compositence GmbH (Leonberg, Germany) and BA Composites GmbH (Grenzach-Wyhlen, Germany) and the heads of carbon composites from the Technical University of Munich also joined the collaboration. In addition, system experts Coriolis Group SAS (Queven, France) and Cevotec GmbH (Taufkirchen beiMünchen) also plan to become partners.
FPC has different high-tech systems and more than 500 square meters of location space, providing customers with the option of developing new production concepts and displaying them in prototype production. SGL Carbon can start with mass production of fiber-reinforced components and will process dry and pre-impregnated fibers with or without a thermoplastic matrix system.
FPC is currently preparing secondary and primary structural parts projects with aerospace companies and various auto parts manufacturers worldwide. The work of the center is closely linked to SGL Carbon's Lightweight and Application Center (LAC, Meitingen, Germany), which is a 1,500 square meter factory dedicated to the development of innovative lightweight structures, processes and prototypes.
The FPC team consists of several engineers, doctoral students and technicians, so all relevant core disciplines can be applied in the composite material manufacturing process chain. Thanks to the cooperation with the Technical University of Munich and Fraunhofer IGCV, the team will also be accompanied by students to work in order to create the best conditions to promote the development of young talents.