Subproject B4

In mechanical and automobile engineering the active deformation and stress control as well as the active vibration damping will intensively come to the fore, due to increasing comfort and environmental demands with future high-power applications in lightweight construction methods. Under the aspect of short cycle times that are relevant for high-volume applications, the usage of innovative thermoplastic fiber plastic composites (FPC) with materially integrated piezoceramic modules (“active FPC”) is ascribed a special importance. These innovative “active FPC” provide the opportunity to achieve a notably increased composite damping and improved noise emission behavior by an actively controlled adaptation of the material structure to the mechanical and acoustical stresses. However, actively fibered thermoplast composites have not succeeded in high-volume applications yet, since suitable high-volume-compatible robust manufacturing processes are missing.
Consequently, the basic concern is the development of high-volume-compatible manufacturing technologies and the systematic formulation of material- and actuator-suitable design principles that are specific for active thermoplastic fiber composite structures with materially homogeneously integrated thermoplast composite-compatible piezoceramic modules (TPM). This new group of active fiber composite semifinished products, for instance based on polyetheretherketon (PEEK) or polyamide (PA), is really predestined as technology bed for numerous application fields in mechanical and automobile engineering as well as in medical technology, due to its outstanding mechanical, thermal and biophysical features. In the first application term, scientific-technological fundamentals for the manufacturing firstly only of plate-shaped basic components are to be worked-out that are to be upgraded to slightly curved structures in the next project phase.
A main focus of the study is the development of robust processes on the basis of a plastic- and actuator-suitable hot-pressure method. According to the high processing temperatures, especially PEEK composites still need an extensive research. In this project, the planned continuously pressed processing of fiber composite semifinished products and TPM that have already been purposefully ready-made in subproject A5 for the used thermoplasmatrices to a functional and distortion-minimized active component presents a new “direct technique” that does not require any downstreamed manufacturing steps and therefore, enables short cycle times. For this particular reason, the influence of various parameters of the hot-pressing processes on the PEEK or PA-matrix interface, amplifier fibers and TPM needs to be resolved in cooperation with subproject A5. Moreover, extensive investigations on the realization of a process immanent contacting and on an online-polarity of the piezoceramics are premeditated. In the second application term, the formulated solutions are to be transferred to the close-to-production manufacturing of slightly curved thermoplast composite-basic components featuring a defined functionality through the materially integrated TPM. In the third application term, the developed technologies are to be implemented within high-volume processes from active fibered composite components with a defined multifunctionality to a plastic-suitable manufacturing.
At the development of material- and actuator-suitable design principles, the specific functions, such as the carrier function, the damping effect and the noise reduction need to be determined and quantified at first for the considered active fiber composite components. The restrictions resulting from the manufacturing incorporate into the development as they significantly influence the achievable property profile, the scope for design as well as the composition of the structural components. From it, material- and actuator-compatible design principles for the new active thermoplast composite components are to be inferred.
Subproject B4 takes on the integral processing of functional modules TPM – developed in subproject A5 – to a thermoplast composite semifinished product or active FPC-component respectively that accomplishes defined sensory and actuatory functions without any further subsequent manufacturing steps. Thereby, subproject B4 represents the central project within the process chain of fiber composite by means of which a high-volume-compatible production technology for active thermoplast composites will be established. The integration of the necessary contacting and polarization technologies is completed in close cooperation with the subprojects A4 and C3.