Tri-Mack Plastics Manufacturing Corp. has developed a brand new course of for producing very light-weight, high-strength enclosures utilizing simply eight plies of unidirectional carbon-fiber strengthened thermoplastic composite (TPC) tape that measure solely 0.040-in. thick. Launched ultimately month’s CAMX present, the enclosures had been made utilizing Tri-Mack’s technique of automated tape laying, consolidation, and stamp forming, which might produce elements in minutes, reasonably than the hours which are usually required for thermosets, the corporate shared in a information launch.
Course of Engineering Supervisor Ben Lamm, chief of the brand new enclosure challenge, mentioned that it was a technical problem to kind the massive, deep covers out of TPC. “With unidirectional supplies you’re stacking plies which are oriented in numerous instructions all through the half,” he defined within the launch. “Making advanced shapes this manner requires particular person plies to slide towards one another as you’re forming. Getting them to maneuver the way in which you need to produce a constant, wrinkle-free half requires strategic layup and power design, in addition to subtleties in materials dealing with throughout processing.”
Tom Kneath, vp for gross sales and advertising, believes the brand new TPC covers might meet demand for robust, light-weight enclosures that may defend purposeful elements in plane, drones, and different industrial makes use of. “The place power and sturdiness are priorities along with the lightest weight, continuous-fiber TPCs are the fabric of selection. It’s much less brittle than thermosets, delivers ten occasions the power of injection-molded elements and, with our enclosure, offers a 30% weight discount versus 6061 aluminum,” he mentioned within the launch.
The brand new enclosures can be produced utilizing glass fiber and with totally different base resins as properly, together with PAEK, PEEK and PEI, offering a wide range of customizable properties and options. One other good thing about the brand new enclosure’s manufacturing course of is that it permits for added performance, creating “sensible composites” by embedding EMI shielding, or including localized reinforcement via tailor-made layups, the corporate mentioned.
Tri-Mack could make extremely tailor-made layups utilizing its automated tape laying machine.
“We will add electrically conductive layers into our course of to allow EMI shielding efficiency at a fraction of the burden of metallic,” mentioned gross sales engineer Max McCabe within the assertion, noting that this additionally eliminates the plating and portray course of steps of typical EMI options used on composite elements.
Electrical conductivity and shielding effectiveness might be tailor-made to end-use utilizing all kinds of sturdy composite supplies, McCabe famous, additional broadening potential functions throughout aerospace, unmanned air autos, undersea functions, and electrical autos.
