Voith uses the VRA technology of the carbon fiber composite production line to reduce waste and material costs by laying carbon fiber layers during final molding.
Voith Composites (Munich, Germany) was recently awarded the VDI (German Association of Engineers in Dusseldorf, Germany) and Carbon Composites eV (CCeV, Bavaria, Germany) at the 2nd Lightweight Construction Conference in Graz, Austria. 2018 Young Lightweight Architecture Award.
Recently, Voith announced a new project: mass production of carbon fiber composites through innovative fiber laying technology. The project cooperated with Audi and, with its production site in Garching, Munich, for the first time realized a continuous digital and automated production line for large-scale production of carbon fiber composite parts. The carbon fiber composite rear wall of the new Audi A8 is produced by a VRA fiber placement machine using 6-19 layers of carbon fiber material on a fully automatic production line.
In order to meet high quality requirements while minimizing production cycles, the pre-forming of the parts must be gap-free and wrinkle-free. Therefore, the partners have developed a molding simulation technology to achieve this segmented stamping technology.
VRA technology reduces waste and material costs by laying carbon fibers during final molding. Audi and Voith have also developed a fully automatic bonding technology: accessories can be assembled without the need for mechanical pretreatment of carbon fiber composites and metal joints. This new process not only saves production time and auxiliary materials, but also enables rapid production of small batches.
Dr. Lars Herbeck, General Manager of Voith Composites, accepted the award on behalf of the team. Other shortlisted companies are the Airbus (Toulouse, France) consortium and MT Aerospace AG (Augsburg, Germany).