New tape sandwich technology with lightweight and sustainability advantages
Development partners ENGEL, Feronyl, and KTM Technologies have premiered a motorcycle seat base demonstrator produced using a new tape sandwich process. It features greater stiffness with less weight and a more compact part design.
In the tape sandwich process, very thin, single-layer reinforcement materials, such as tapes and fabrics with polypropylene matrix, are inserted into both cavity halves of the injection mold without preheating before the cavity is filled with polypropylene.
Due to the specific mechanical properties of the sandwich structure, the stiffness required for motorcycle seat bases is met with a single-layer UD-tape. This means that the tape sandwich process requires significantly less energy and simpler production cell technology than conventional fiber-reinforced plastic composite processing methods. At the same time, the production costs drop.
Another advantage of the sandwich structure is that standard thermoplastics can be used in components exposed to high mechanical stresses, since the part performance is driven exclusively by the tape structure, which also boosts cost efficiency.
Check out what the ENGEL experts said on the new technology and further trend.
