America’s Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), in partnership with DuPont Performance Materials, Fibrtec and Purdue University, has unveiled a project with a dual focus on decreasing the cost of manufacture and increasing design flexibility for automotive composites.

Multiple factors, including cost and design constraints, present barriers to the adoption of composites in high volume automotive applications.

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The new IACMI project will address both areas through what the body maintains is a “fundamentally different approach to the manufacturing of carbon fibre composites versus those currently in use today.”

Flexible coated tow manufactured by Fibrtec will be formed into flexible fabric prepregs using Rapid Fabric Formation (RFF) technology, along with a proprietary polyamide resin, both by DuPont.

The final component will benefit from increased production speeds of the two manufacturing processes and the fabric forming procedure, resulting in a lower cost of manufacture insists IACMI.

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Researchers in the Purdue University Composites Manufacturing and Simulation Centre will work with the team to model and validate drapability and part performance.

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“By leveraging the strengths of all project partners, we have the potential to create a commercially viable path to high volume, low cost thermoplastic composite automotive components,” said DuPont Performance Materials project manager, Jan Sawgle.

The IACMI, managed by the Collaborative Composite Solutions Corporation (CCS), is a partnership of industry, universities, national laboratories and Federal, State and local governments.

The national institute is supported by a US$70m commitment from the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office and more than US$180m committed from IACMI’s partners.