Carbon Fiber Composite Materials in Modern Day Automotive Production Lines – A Case Study
Author
Summary, in English
New and innovative production equipment can be developed by introducing lightweight materials in modern day automotive industry production lines. The properties of these new materials are expected to result in improved ergonomics, energy savings, increased flexibility and more robust equipment, which in the end will result in enhanced productivity. Carbon composite materials are one such alternative that has excellent material properties. These properties are well documented, and the market for carbon composite materials is growing in many areas such as commercial aircrafts, sporting goods and wind turbines. However, when studying the use of carbon composite materials for production equipment in the automotive industry, it was found that there were few, if any, such examples.
This paper focuses on innovative ways of making carbon composite materials available for designing automotive industry production equipment by introducing a design and material concept that combines flexibility, relatively low costs and high functionality. By reducing the weight by 60%, it was obvious that the operators were very positive to the new design. But just as important as the improvement of the ergonomic feature, the combination of low weight and material properties resulted in a more robust design and a more stable process of operation. The two main designs (two versions of the steel-based design were constructed) were developed sequentially, making it difficult to compare development costs since knowledge migrated from one project to the next. In this study, the gripper was manufactured in both carbon composite material and steel. The different designs were compared with reference to design costs, functionality, robustness, product costs and ergonomics. The study clearly shows that the composite material represents a favorable alternative to conventional materials, as the system combines superior properties without significantly increasing the cost of the equipment. This paper describes the approach in detail.
This paper focuses on innovative ways of making carbon composite materials available for designing automotive industry production equipment by introducing a design and material concept that combines flexibility, relatively low costs and high functionality. By reducing the weight by 60%, it was obvious that the operators were very positive to the new design. But just as important as the improvement of the ergonomic feature, the combination of low weight and material properties resulted in a more robust design and a more stable process of operation. The two main designs (two versions of the steel-based design were constructed) were developed sequentially, making it difficult to compare development costs since knowledge migrated from one project to the next. In this study, the gripper was manufactured in both carbon composite material and steel. The different designs were compared with reference to design costs, functionality, robustness, product costs and ergonomics. The study clearly shows that the composite material represents a favorable alternative to conventional materials, as the system combines superior properties without significantly increasing the cost of the equipment. This paper describes the approach in detail.
Department/s
Publishing year
2013
Language
English
Pages
02-037
Publication/Series
Proceedings of the International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition - IMECE'13
Volume
2A
Full text
- Available as PDF - 332 kB
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Document type
Conference paper
Publisher
American Society Of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
Topic
- Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics
Keywords
- Machine Design
- Maskinkonstruktion
Conference name
International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition - IMECE'13
Conference date
2013-11-15 - 2013-11-21
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISBN: 978-0-7918-5618-5