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MOTORINDIA
l
September 2012
VDMA
discusses role of
automation in reducing
overall cost of production
The members of the VDMA Com-
posite Technology Forum and of the
partner organisations AVK, Carbon
Composites e.V. and CFK Valley
Stade e.V., recently met in Frankfurt
to discuss affordable manufactur-
ing automation solutions along the
entire process chain to help bring
about the required reduction in the
cost of finished products.
In his welcome address at the ses-
sion, Frank Peters of KlaussMaffei
Technologies GmbH Board high-
lighted the importance of close co-
operation between machinery and
plant manufacturers and the industry
using fibre composites as well as
among their various networks.
In his keynote address on the
challenges of automation, Klaus
Drechsler, Professor of Carbon
Composites at Munich Technical
University, identified carbon fibre-
reinforced plastics (CRP) as having
the greatest potential of all material
systems in lightweight construction,
with a possible 90 per cent saving in
process costs.
“Use of carbon fibre- reinforced
plastics in industrial-scale produc-
tion does however still require con-
siderable research efforts, from the
material sciences through structural
mechanics to process engineering.
Automation solutions from machin-
ery and plant manufacturers are the
key drivers for industrialisation,” he
said.
Composite component manufac-
turing will have to be overhauled
completely if large-scale produc-
tion is to be introduced in the motor
industry, explained Heinrich Timm
of AUDI AG. “Lightweight con-
struction goes far beyond reducing
consumption and emissions. Light-
weight construction is also about the
automation
More than 150 delegates discussed
approaches to automation and what
was required of plant and machinery
manufacturers, stressing the benefits
of knowledge transfer for the neces-
sary joint developments.
Mr. Frank Peters, spokesman of the Composite Technology Forum and Krauss-
Maffei Technologies GmbHboard member.