Related contact
www.gurit.com
13 Jan 2010 - Switzerland / United Kingdom
High-quality composite body panels for the Aston Martin DBS Volante
Cross section of a body panel © Gurit
For luxury goods, everything has to be perfect. Aston Martin cars are no exception to this rule. These exceptional cars make the most of composite advantages. Gurit is applying the SPRINT® CBS (Carbon Body Sheet) technology to produce Class-A carbon body panels for one of Aston Martin’s latest models: the DBS Volante. Every potential customer of Aston Martin is invited to visit the Gaydon plant after an appointment at one of the 135 dealers of the brand, which is represented in 42 countries. The goal of this visit is to understand the cost of an Aston Martin. Every detail of these cars is carefully worked out, starting at the supplier level, well before the plant. Gurit contributes its composite expertise as a Tier 1 supplier. Into the automotive market Gurit started its automotive composite activities in 2000 with the supply of raw materials for the Mercedes-McLaren SLR. In 2003 the company supplied materials technology for the complete BIW for the MG SV and SV-R. The Aston Martin ALBOS demonstrator followed in 2005. In 2007, Gurit started serial production for the Aston Martin DBS. Capability continues to grow Gurit’s first automotive parts production facility was launched in 2007 to supply the Aston Martin DBS with the leading technology in carbon composite body panels. Since then, it has dramatically ramped up its production rate to satisfy a strong demand for DBSs. Output grew consistently through 2008, ultimately achieving a 5-fold increase in production volumes by the last quarter. The strength of this technology combined with the sustained performance of the facility were key factors in securing a second OEM programme, the Aston Martin DBS Volante (the convertible version of the DBS), with production expected to start throughout the summer 2009. To meet the demands of the new and existing programmes, as well as the many potential customers that are currently looking into the technology, Gurit has created a new-look development centre adjacent to its production facility. The centre houses all automotive functions including: new development and engineering teams, commercial activities including sales and marketing, an expanded quality and product management group, and a team of highly-skilled manufacturing engineers. These new offices are home to the CATIA design suite and a development lab that will ensure that Gurit’s capabilities in composite panels and tooling design remain unrivalled within the industry. Martin Starkey, managing director at Gurit Automotive comments: “Bringing this focused and skilled team together is critical in 2009 as we continue to raise the bar and target the acquisition of further programmes and supporting accreditations such as TS16949, which will reinforce our position as world leader in this field”. From the recently-launched, specialized facility based on the Isle of Wight, Gurit will supply Class A car sets for the DBS Volante, consisting of right and left hand fenders, hoods (bonnets) and deck lids (boot lids) – all manufactured from new-technology carbon composites. Production has already begun. The company has the capability to formulate, design, prototype and manufacture fullyassembled, primed exterior body panels. The Aston Martin Volante was launched earlier this year at the Geneva Motor Show 2009. An advanced composite solution The facility producing automotive parts utilizes a wide range of innovative technologies that are essential for maximizing the potential of the carbon body panel solution: high-precision nickel tooling, CNC machining, and coordinate measurement machines are all crucial for achieving part geometrical accuracy and stringent quality standards. The Gurit approach to providing solutions requires an integrated relationship with customers, giving them access to the company’s technical strengths and capabilities, and ensuring the delivery of specific requirements and expectations. This kind of strong relationship with customers helps drive cost down and quality up. The award-winning SPRINT® CBS materials technology has provided the breakthrough enabling the production of Class-A carbon body panels directly from the tool. The materials and process have also been developed to guarantee this exceptional surface quality throughout the vehicle’s lifecycle. Behind the surface, composite processing techniques and material optimization provide a design flexibility that cannot be attained with incumbent metal panel technology. Combining the functionality of the materials with the robust and efficient processing techniques results in some outstanding benefits for the customer: Class-A carbon composite technology; customized strength, stiffness and weight; and ultimate freedom for stylists and designers. Achieving smooth surfaces and strong parts The patented SPRINT® CBS technology is combined with Gurit’s patented in-mould surface film to produce high-quality panels with a sandable Class-A surface directly from the tool. CBS consists of a low-density syntactic core film sandwiched between two layers of single-sided SPRINT®. The syntactic core retains the flexural stiffness of a monolithic panel but also benefits from lower cost, reduced lay-up times (only one ply required) and paintability to Class-A quality. Gurit has also worked closely with DuPont to develop a paint system specifically designed to achieve a Class-A painted finish using Gurit’s composite materials (with an in-mould surface film). This system is up to 80% lighter than steel of equivalent stiffness. Moreover, it cures rapidly, in either one hour at 120°C or 30 minutes at 130°C. It is expected to be used alongside SF 95 to produce body and closure panels for automotive applications and other similar panel mouldings. The material has been designed for simple vacuum bag processing. SF 95 is a kind of veil made of thermoplastic resin which nearly melts during the process to ensure a really smooth surface. Part production process Gurit’s development partnership with Aston Martin culminated in the building of a world-class part manufacturing facility to support the production of their flagship vehicle, the DBS. The facility utilises a wide range of innovative technologies that are essential to maximise the potential of the carbon body panel solution, and to provide a clear competitive advantage for customers. Material kitting To enable rapid material deposition and maximise tool utilisation, a kitting system was developed using computer modelling techniques. The kitting models are transferred to the SPRINT® CBS and surfacing films using a CNC ultrasonic cutting machine. The kits are subsequently assembled on trays and placed into the Kanban storage racking system. Tools and moulding These 2D kits are then applied to preform tools to further reduce cycle times and optimize output before being transferred to the nickel shell tools and being enclosed by a specially-developed vacuum system. The three main functions of the vacuum system are to provide rapid tool closure, to remove air and volatiles from the materials during processing thereby consolidating the material, and to provide a high-quality B-side surface. The nickel shell tools were specifically developed to provide the required surface finish, durability, and rapid cycle times whilst remaining in situ. Rapid heating cycles are obtained using PLC electronics and key in-process data is captured and recorded for each part. CNC machining The cured panels are subsequently machined to remove flash and prepare child part bonding. This is achieved on a high-precision 5- axis CNC machining centre that is fully ATEX-compliant for carbon fibre applications. Bonding and priming Precision bonding jigs are used to produce the final assemblies. All the necessary child parts are bonded in position using Dow and 3M adhesives. The body panels are then transferred to one of the two temperature-and humidity-controlled painting booths for the application of an advanced DuPont primer system. CMM and final inspection The parts undergo a rigorous quality inspection before they are released for shipping. Part geometrical accuracy is a fundamental requirement, so it is quantified using a coordinate measurement machine (CMM) with its integrated statistical analysis tools. 490 points are controlled. The Class-A surface is less numerically quantifiable. Therefore, highly-trained inspectors use a 1000-lux daylighting station for part release to ensure full spectrum of the eye capability, benchmarking quality against physical OEM boundary samples. Composites to drive growth Mr. Peter Stevens, a designer previously involved in Gurit's automotive part development and a known specialist in performance road cars, saw a real change in composites use: “At the beginning, composites were just regarded as “black aluminium” in performance road cars. People were continuing to design parts as if they were made of metal and didn’t use all the potential of composites. Nowadays, and especially at Gurit, things have changed. We use all their intrinsic properties to optimize part characteristics, combining low weight with strength. For example, when we worked together on the MG XPower SV and SV-R in 2003, we produced 40 composite parts for each car. It was effectively free horse power with weight reduction” Composites are irreplaceable to achieve the best performance in powerful cars. The really exclusive Aston Martin One-77 is using large amounts of composites for its body structure and panels. In the near future, primary structures such as A, B and C pillars could also be made of composites. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------Special features - Class-A finish - Low weight - Can be in production in less than 3 months (6 for metal) - Tooling far cheaper than for steel - Best price versus metal (for low and medium volumes) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------An interview withg Martin Starkey Marketing Director - Automotive - Gurit JEC Composites Magazine: In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge in continuously ensuring a high level of quality? With respect to continuous high quality, it’s critical that the process be highly repeatable, something which is not historically associated with low-volume carbon fibre composites. From the NC-cut kits, robust class-A nickel tools, computercontrolled curing & vacuum systems, advanced CNC machining of parts and precision assembly fixtures, part-to-part variability has practically been eliminated, allowing the development of a continuous high-quality assembly. JCM: What is your added value compared with your competitors? We are unique with respect to automotive Tier 1's capable of producing carbon fibre automotive closures. Not only can we develop production methods, part designs, tooling concepts, etc. for CFK assemblies, but we can ultimately engineer and manufacture the raw materials to ensure the most efficient solution is reached. A prime example of this is our CBS system, where we were able to invent a whole range of materials to ensure that a Class-A surface could be achieved, at the lightest weight and in an efficient manufacturing process with respect to CFK closures. JCM: Would you open a new factory in another country to follow one of your customer ? Gurit has a successful track record of supporting its customers with local manufacturing and there is no reason the Automotive sector would be any different. The strength in our technology is, where appropriate, we have deskilled processes and place the 'smarts' into the materials or manufacturing systems - this makes our current manufacturing model particularly easy to replicate virtually anywhere in the world. JCM: Composites are a perfect solution for Automotive niche markets. Do you think they could penetrate a larger market? If you look at the progression of advanced composites into the automotive market, a decade ago it was still the reserve of the most exclusive hyper cars, with the total number of vehicles being manufactured each year in the 10's or occasionally 100's. As of today 1000's of sports cars are produced each year they utilise advanced composites to bring them advantages over other engineering materials. As manufacturing technologies continue to develop and engineering experience with these materials grow these types of materials will find more and more applications on more and more mainstream vehicles. In many ways I believe the development and use of Aluminium over Steel in structural and cosmetic automotive applications is a classic example of how a new engineering material is accepted by the automotive industry.
Source : Gurit
No comments:
Post a Comment