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MOTORINDIA
l
September 2012
93
sustainable saving of resources and
driving safety. That is why the fo-
cus is on lightweight more than ever
before, inspiring ideas in composite
construction ranging from steel and
aluminium to fibre-reinforced mate-
rials. The best material for the pur-
pose is the smallest possible quantity
and in the right place: that is the way
to economic lightweight construc-
tion. This means developing and
automating the manufacturing and
joining processes for the production
line. VDMA’s current practice of
exchanges between machinery and
plant manufacturers and user indus-
tries is of utmost importance here.”
There is no series manufacture
without automation solutions. The
use of fibre composites in series pro-
duction requires reliable processes
with short cycle times and a high
degree of accuracy. At the same
time, the prices of high-performance
fibres will have to come down in
order to be competitive. The chal-
lenges of automated manufacture
arise at every stage: textile moulded
part manufacture, cutting, handling
of limp fabricated materials, injec-
tion and hardening processes, tool
design, joining and assembly tech-
niques, working and testing of com-
ponents.
For all these questions, the Com-
posite Technology Forum brings to-
gether more than 130 VDMA mem-
ber-firms from eight associations to
pursue the necessary developments
jointly with the customer indus-
tries. With thermo process technol-
ogy, textile machinery, garment
and leather technology, plastics and
rubber machinery, robotics and au-
tomation, machine tools, precision
tools and testing machines, the en-
tire process chain is covered, from
fibre to finished component.
w
From left, Mr. Frank Peters, KraussMaffei Technologies GmbH, Dr. Rolf Bütje, Nordex SE, Mr. Prof. Klaus
Drechsler, TU München, Mr. Volker Mathes, AVK, Dr. Begemann, VDMA, Mr. Thomas Waldmann, VDMA, Dr.
Elmar Witten, AVK, Dr. Michael Effing, AVK, Mr. Lothar Gräbener, Schuler SMG GmbH & Co. KG, Dr. Markus
Lang, Voith Composites GmbH & Co. KG, Mr. Christian Meiners, BRÖTJE-Automation GmbH, Dr. Thomas
Bischoff, Groz-Beckert KG, Mr. Thorsten Kühmann, VDMA, and Mr. Heinrich Timm, AUDI AG
Lightweight components are increas-
ingly being used for the new gen-
eration of motor vehicles in particu-
lar, especially to compensate for the
weight of electric vehicle batteries and
to cut fleet consumption overall.
automation