Three key takeaways from JEC World 2024

In March, during JEC World 2024 in Paris, the leading international composites show, Envalior revealed cutting-edge lightweight and flame-retardant composite applications, including a new solution for electric vehicle (EV) batteries, a lightweight load compartment well, a sustainable pressure vessel, a battery carrier plate and more. Also, Clemson University with partners Envalior, University of Delaware and Honda Development and Manufacturing of America was one of three finalists for the JEC Composites Innovation Awards.

Clemson University entered the JEC Composites Innovation Awards with the World’s First Ultra-Light CF Thermoplastic Composite Door. The key benefits of the door include:

• 45% lightweighting and 52% parts consolidation over baseline steel door
• 31.5% improvement in fuel efficiency
• 100% reprocessability
• Enhanced crash performance over baseline steel door
• Reduction in vehicle emissions

"With the strong partnership between Proper Tooling and Clemson, the project team was able to achieve a design that is drapable using the help of Envalior’s proprietary draping code. This also helped us to develop a manufacturing strategy that is semi-automated with short production times,” said Pal Swaminathan, sales & business development manager for Envalior’s Tepex® product line. “Because of its woven nature, the Tepex dynalite material is similar to metal stamping in terms of ease of handling in the manufacturing process, with high strength, but lower weight."

Other finalists in the Automotive & Road Transportation–Parts category were Voith Composites with a large certified H2 tank and Toyota Motor Corporation with a monolithic CFRP-aluminum monocoque.

Below are three key takeaways from JEC World focusing on the automotive sector:

• Enabling automotive lightweighting: As vehicle electrification accelerates, there is a need to decrease parts weight to compensate for increased battery weight. With a weight savings of ca. 4kg compared to steel sheet metal, the Mercedes C-Class Lightweight Load Compartment Well made of PP-Roving glass organo sheet was showcased at the Envalior booth. The well shows how efficient a hybrid molded organo sheet is. It can simplify the entire process chain as the part is really mold-falling—no sealing, further assembly, welding or corrosion protection is necessary. Furthermore, frunk (front-trunks for EVs) applications are representing one strategical application for Tepex® – and the approach is very much similar to the load compartment well.

• Meeting the safety demands of thermal management: Battery safety is of utmost importance in EV applications. Materials that enhance the thermal stability of batteries, prevent thermal runaway, and mitigate the risk of fire or explosion are actively researched. Meeting flammability in thermal runaway cases a new solution for EV batteries made our engineering material Tepex was showcased. The special composite can withstand the harshest test in the field of thermal runaway and thermal propagation. Many conventional materials, such as aluminum in a comparable thickness, fail in the tests or need to be modified by complex or expensive means. Tepex intrinsically offers an effective protection.

• Developing sustainable alternatives: The sustainability and environmental impact of battery materials are important considerations. Developing sustainable materials, recycling technologies, and reducing reliance on rare or environmentally sensitive materials are important challenges for battery manufacturers and automotive OEMs. We offer a portfolio of products that can meet these challenges.
  
  A great example is the Mercedes EQS battery carrier plate with functional integration, which was showcased. The part consists of inserts, like metal threat domes and other functional elements. Plus, the part is fully recyclable. The material is a continuous glass fiber reinforced PA6 with a Durethan® PA6 backmolding with high strength and stiffness, which is important to carry and protect sensitive electronic components. The functional integration with threat domes, rips and stiffeners, as well as further fixation elements, saves a lot of effort for assembling and corrosion protection.
  
  Also at the booth, highly sustainable with maximum performance for tank systems, a pressure vessel made from UDea™ EcoPaXX® performance UD tapes and Envalior liners was showcased. Our UD tapes enable fully automized winding of tanks. Our performance fibers and specials liner materials reach maximum performance for tank systems.
  
  Fully automated winding is possible with UD tape because the UD tape is produced and sold in one long bobbin of material. Plus, the winding process itself does not need "human" support once is started. The fact that the UD tape bobbin is spoolable and long allows the production of big parts/tanks without having to change the spool often, minimizing down-time. The thermoplastic nature of the UD tape allows starting and stopping of the winding process without jeopardizing the quality of [BD,D1] the produced part. Full automation translates to consistency in production, less scrap rate, and robustness—parts are always the same and not dependent on operators, etc.