Introduction of Ford Research & Advanced Engineering Natural Fiber Reinforced Plastics for Crash (NFC) An Innovative Process for Hybrid Structural Parts (HYLIGHT) Challenges for Application of Unidirectional Tapes (FORTAPE) 2 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Ford Research & Advanced Engineering 1995 founded, only research facility of Ford outside the US Managing Directors: Dr. Andreas Schamel Prof. Dr. Pim van der Jagt 300 employees from 25 different nations (US: approx. 900) Locations: Aachen, Cologne, Lommel (test track, Belgium) 3 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Ford Research & Advanced Engineering Gasoline Powertrain Vehicle Technologies & Materials Global Responsibility Powertrain Electrification System Integration Diesel Powertrain Vehicle Dynamics & Chassis Technologies Sustainability & Environment Active Safety & Driver Assistance Systems Interior Concepts 4 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Introduction of Ford Research & Advanced Engineering Natural Fiber Reinforced Plastics for Crash (NFC) An Innovative Process for Hybrid Structural Parts (HYLIGHT) Challenges for Application of Unidirectional Tapes (FORTAPE) 5 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Global DNA of Ford Motor Company 1915 (Model T): wheat based glue, soybean wool, soybean plastics 1932-1933: Henry Ford spends $1.25 Million in research soy cultivation 1940: soybean plastic trunk lid Ford is the first automobile manufacturer worldwide with a Product Sustainability Index (PSI) 6 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Global use of Sustainable Materials within Ford Under Hood parts (fan shrouds, battery trays, heater housing, wheel arch liners, engine fans and covers,..) Door Trims Headliner Fabric Seals Renewable Material Recycled Material Storage Bins (Wheat Straw) Headlamp Housing Front Skirt Wheel House Seat Fabric General Ford Facts: Seat Foam Under Body Systems Carpets use of more than 25.000 tons of recycled materials on the exterior of Ford vehicles soy foam seats in more than 8 million Ford vehicles on the road more than 300 parts across Ford s vehicles are made from renewable materials Sound-Absorption Materials 7 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Challenges in the Product Development Engines/ Body Gearbox Styles per >12.000* Variants Platform Ford Only occupant possible per crash with protection intensive Platform simulationsapplication simulations of ressources computersimulations! Production of during the double every development Markets 2 years! the Ford Focus! Sides - Diesel, Gasoline, Gas,.. - N.A., Turbo, -.., 3, 4,.. Cylinder - Mild/Full Hybrid, PHEV - Battery/Fuel Cell Electric - Automatic DC, CVT, Conv. - Manual 5/6/7 gear - Customer Requirements - Legislative Requirements - - Suppliers - Material Availability - Material Composition - Technical Capabilities *Source: Press Release Ford 28.11.2011 8 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Project Overview Title: Material and flow models for natural fiber reinforced injection molding materials for practical use in the automotive industry Goal: Adaption of material models for flow- and crash simulation of natural fiber (NF) reinforced polymer and creation of their respective material cards for series application in the automotive industry Funding: Agency for Renewable Resources (FNR) German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) Timeframe: 01/07/2011 30/06/2014 11 project partner from industry and research 9 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Project Partner Ford Research and Advanced Engineering Europe (M. Magnani, T. Baranowski, M. Franzen) International Automotive Components (IAC) (F. Schumann) LyondellBasell (F. Weber) Kunststoffwerk Voerde Hueck & Schade GmbH & Co. KG (B. Rüther, S. Lux) Simcon Kunststofftechnische Software GmbH (P. Filz, K. Webelhaus) M-Base Engineering + Software GmbH (E. Baur) University of Wisconsin-Madison, Polymer Engineering Center (PEC) (Prof. T. Osswald) Hochschule Hannover, Institut für Biokunststoffe und Bioverbundwerkstoffe (Prof. H.-J. Endres, M. Neudecker) Hochschule Bremen (Prof. J. Muessig, K. Albrecht) Universität Clausthal, Institut für Polymerwerkstoffe und Kunststofftechnik (Prof. Ziegmann, L. Steuernagel, A. El Sabbagh, A. Ramzy) Fraunhofer Institut für Betriebsfestigkeit und Systemzuverlässigkeit (Prof. M. Rehahn, S. Mönnich) 10 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Selected Compounds for Investigations No Matrix Fiber Fiber Content (%) 1 PP commercial sisal compound 30 2 PP commercial hemp compound 30 No Matrix Fiber Fiber Content (%) 3 PP1 regenerated cellulosic fiber (0,5mm) 10 4 PP2 regenerated cellulosic fiber (0,5mm) 10 5 PP1 regenerated cellulosic fiber (1,5mm) 10 6 PP2 regenerated cellulosic fiber (1,5mm) 10 7 PP1 regenerated cellulosic fiber (0,5mm) 30 8 PP2 regenerated cellulosic fiber (0,5mm) 30 9 PP1 regenerated cellulosic fiber (1,5mm) 30 10 PP2 regenerated cellulosic fiber (1,5mm) 30 11 (Center Point) PP1+PP2 regenerated cellulosic fiber (1,0mm) 20 No Matrix Fiber Fiber Content (%) 12 PP1 hemp pellets 30 13 PP1 flax pellets 30 14 PP1 sisal 30 15 PP1 wheat straw 30 16 PP1 kenaf pellets 30 17 PP1 wood fiber 30 18 PP1 regenerated cellulosic fiber 2 (CH2) 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 13 14 15 16 17 18 11 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Stress [N/mm²] Measurements of Mechanical Fiber Properties* 1200 1000 800 600 400 Sisal 200 Flax 0 0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16% Strain [%] Fafegraph M (Fa. Textechno, Mönchengladbach) 3,2 mm clamping length; 2 mm/min test velocity 24 h air conditioning at 20 C & 65 % rel. moisture Determination of Young s modulus, strength and fracture strain * University of Applied Science Regenerated Cellulosic Fiber 12 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Length / Width Influence of Process on Fibers* Original Fibers Fiber shaped long object Split-up Fracture Fibers in Compound (Cescutti et al. 2006) Width in µm * University of Applied Science 13 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Result: Integrative Simulation Approach Micro Mechanical Simulation Injection Simulation Crash Simulation MATFEM Material Model for Crash MATFEM Material Tests 14 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Introduction of Ford Research & Advanced Engineering Natural Fiber Reinforced Plastics for Crash (NFC) An Innovative Process for Hybrid Structural Parts (HYLIGHT) Challenges for Application of Unidirectional Tapes (FORTAPE) 15 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Introduction The Motivation for HYLIGHT Current Technology: Mechanical interlocks NEW Technology: Adhesive joint concept polymer metal insert injected bolt metal insert adhesive polymer Reduction of up to 20% weight and material (plastic & metal) Higher impact resistance, stiffness and safety Homogeneous load distribution Reduction of process steps (e.g. cutting) and costs (vs. form fit) Integration of functions e.g. sealing or corrosion protection 16 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Introduction Current and New Process Chain Current process chain Metal forming Cathodic dip coating Injection molding Hybrid part New process chain Coil coating Metal forming Injection Hybrid part molding 17 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Process Chain Evonik VESTAMELT Hühoco Coil Coater Kirchhoff Metal Former Lanxess Polymers Montaplast Injection Molder Ford OEM University partners: Process chain Coil coating Metal forming Injection Hybrid part molding 18 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Torsional Testing on Hybrid Carrier static load Torsion test of hybrid beam Erlanger Träger torque against torsion angle failure behaviour increase of max. torque and part stiffness w/o adhesive: (a) Failure in polymer close to metal rim HYLIGHT Lacquer: (b) Buckling + breaking of the pressure loaded ribs 19 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Corrosion Tests on Sample Parts at Ford Daily test procedure for 12 weeks: Several hours wet phase at room temperature with intermittent exposure to salt solution (0.5% NaCl) Several hours transition phase with drying under climate control Several hours with constant temperature (50 C) and humidity (70%) samples in test chamber Corrosion results with final coating system show very good performance compared to serial coatings after tempering w/o tempering 20 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Final Corrosion Test on Full Vehicle at Ford Full vehicle test procedure: function check and mechanical test 4 hours of driving every day different tracks approximately 180 km of driving every day four laps on the corrosion track (0.5 % NaCl) every day 20 hours in climate garage per day duration: 12 weeks C-MAX with build-in HYLIGHT-GOR test track in Lommel corrosion track Corrosion results show excellent part performance GOR after 12 weeks of test 21 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Frontend Testing Hood latch load test Reference Frontend (bending stiffness = 100%) HYLIGHT Frontend (bending stiffness = 130%) load direction HYLIGHT Frontends show a better performance up to 30% Torque test clockwise rotation Reference Frontend (torsional stiffness = 100%) HYLIGHT Frontend (torsional stiffness = 124%) HYLIGHT Frontends show a better performance up to 24% 22 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Cost Effectiveness The conventional technology of Frontend production was consulted as reference process This includes cathodic dip coating, reshaping of metal beams and the whole injection moulding process inclusive labor costs The final new technology with the optimized adhesive joint concept shows better mech. performance up to 30% and has no significant impact on production costs The HYLIGHT Frontend production process offers the opportunity of cost neutrality due to: Lower material costs due to weight reduction (appr. 20%) Coil coating instead of cathodic dip coating Conventional beam forming process Adjusted injection molding process with almost similar cycling time 23 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
CAE: Design Optimization Series state Virtual optimization for load case Hood Latch Retention, i.e. pull-out test of hood latch with F max = 2000 N Removal of unloaded material regions Modification of wall thickness Reduction of metal profile height Wall thickness of ribs adapted to load path (min. wall thickness 1.3 mm) Adhesive bond affords reduction of surficial and edge overmolding Optimized geometry Height of metal profile reduced, wall thickness unchanged (due to forming constraints) Weight reduction of frontend by 20 % possible! 24 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Results of HYLIGHT HYLIGHT adhesion promoter fulfils major mechanical, thermal & chemical requirements of automotive industry for a structural adhesive to bond metal and plastic in hybrid parts. Application as coil coating lacquer and adjusted subsequent processing on standard machinery enables cost neutral manufacturing of hybrid parts in many cases. Adhesive bonding in sample hybrid part (Frontend) leads to an increase in mechanical performance up to 30%. Increase in stiffness offers a potential for weight reduction of appr. 20%. Sample part GOR passed durability test acc. to FORD specification. Adequate simulation model for the description of the adhesive layer during design process is available including processing influence (injection molding). 25 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Introduction of Ford Research & Advanced Engineering Natural Fiber Reinforced Plastics for Crash (NFC) An Innovative Process for Hybrid Structural Parts (HYLIGHT) Challenges for Application of Unidirectional Tapes (FORTAPE) 26 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Properties of Fiber Reinforced Polymers [Ticona] 27 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Overview of FORTAPE Goal: Development of an efficient and optimized system for the manufacturing of complex parts based on unidirectional fibre tapes for its application in the automotive and aeronautical industry Expected Impact (e.g. door panel): -50% material, -50% energy consumption, -30% costs Funded by EU Horizon 2020 Timeline: 02.2015-01.2018 Partners: 1. CTAG, Spain - Organization 2. CANOE, France - Institute for technical scale up 3. ARKEMA, France - Material producer 4. IRT-JV, France - R&A manufacturing 5. EADS, France - Aeronautics 6. GRUPO ANTOLIN, Spain - Automotive Supplier 7. FORD R&A EU, Germany - Automotives 8. MATEX, Spain - Extrusion 9. CORIOLIS, France - Composites 10. OPTEL, Poland - Ultrasonic processes 28 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Possible Applications for Tapes: Door Trim reinforcement of grab handle Ford Tourneo Courier Door Trim reinforcement of top roll A-surface B-surface reducing ribs within map pocket reinforcement of dog houses 29 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Conclusion Natural fiber reinforced plastics for crash application can now be described in detail using an integrative approach New technology HYLIGHT saves weight and costs and passed the requirements for automotive applications At moment Ford and partners face the challenges for application of unidirectional tapes in high volumes 30 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved
Thank you for your attention! 31 May 20, 2015 2015 Ford Motor Company, All Rights Reserved