Subproject A5

At the moment, in the manufacturing of adaptive lightweight components from composite materials, the piezoceramic functional modules are chiefly adhesively applied only after the structural production in an additional complex assembly step. Furthermore, the manufacturing of the functional modules with polyimide (PI-) backing films is nowadays done in discontinuous processes with a high manual effort which is opposed to an economic manufacturing of innovative structural components for lightweight construction applications. Moreover, the usage of a polyimide backing film is disadvantageous for the here planned integration into fibered thermoplast composites with polyetheretherketon (PEEK) or polyamide (PA) as matrix material in terms of their material compatibility, the recyclability and expenses. Accordingly, the planned change-over from assembly orientated to technological orientated actuator integration requires new holistic solutions for the high-volume-compatible manufacturing of thermoplast composite-compatible functional modules (TPM) that can cope with the manufacturing restrictions as well as with the connection problem “functional module/carrier structure”.
So, this subproject intends on developing innovative thermoplast composite-compatible piezoceramic modules (TPM) whose thermoplastic backing film is firmly bonded with the fibered thermoplast carrier structure in SP B4 within the later module integration. For this, the working out of corresponding close-to-production TPM-manufacturing methods is necessary. By selectively melting down the thermoplastic backing film of the TPM and the thermoplastic matrix component of the carrier structure, the desired homogeneous embedding of TPM into the carrier structures can be guaranteed during the subsequent processing of the TPM with the direct technique that needs to be developed within SP B4. As a consequence, the conventional additional adhesive assembly steps and possible local fault zones can be omitted. Here, PEEK-backing films will be exemplarily used for high-temperature applications and PA-backing films for high-volume application.
In the first application term, elementary piezoceramic modules with – in the matrix of the fibered carrier structure bulking – PEEK- and PA-backing film respectively are to be developed and produced by means of an innovative quasi-continuous manufacturing process. Besides the development of a module-manufacturing device, special attention is drawn to a manufacturing- and material-compatible design of the innovative functional modules.