Members of the LX programme, including the AMRC Composite Centre, Expert Tooling & Automation, Granta Design, Cranfield University, Engenuity, LMAT, Surface Generation and Liberty Advanced Composites visit the construction site of the composite press.

The AMRC is working with Bentley, Sigmatex, Expert Tooling & Automation, Granta Design, Cranfield University and Wakefield-based production equipment specialist Group Rhodes as part of the Lightweighting Excellence (LX) programme, which has been backed by the government’s Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative.

The AMRC says that today, industry uses simple ‘preforms’ of composite material that are impregnated with polymer resin and cured to create composite material – designed for low tack-time and production speed, but the resulting part uses more material than necessary structurally.

In order to capitalise on weight-savings offered by carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP), the process strategy must be redefined, it says. The project will look at the precision and tailored production of the preform material to achieve reductions in weight of component by up to 20%.

The project seeks to find the middle-ground between automotive and aerospace, where the need for customisation meets high volume production, by the integration of flexible, automated material and manufacturing processes. The AMRC will turn the optimised preforms of composite material into finished components in a new composite press. The press is currently being installed adjacent to the AMRC’s Factory 2050 facility on Sheffield Business Park, with production set to begin in 2017.

As part of the LX programme, the press will be completed by the development of an automated robotic cell by the AMRC and Expert Tooling & Automation. The cell will be used alongside the press for further industrial research into carbon fibre weaving and robotic placement technology used to make the preforms of composite material.

Says Clara Frias, who is heading the project at the AMRC: “This will be a unique facility that will improve our capabilities and also benefit the UK. The technology will allow us to collect data to optimise the most appropriate preforming technologies, scaling them up for industrial use and allowing programme partners to share benchmarking data with the automotive sector and wider industries.”