3 D Litecomp Sandwich lightweight technology test of hypothesis large vehicle structures
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | STIFTELSEN IMIT - IMIT Göteborg |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 485 000 |
| Project duration | October 2012 - September 2013 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | FFI - Sustainable Production |
| End-of-project report | 2012-02491eng.pdf (pdf, 23 kB) |
Purpose and goal
The goal is to test manufacturing of a 7 m bus side using 3D Litecomp technology to evaluate production rate and product properties. . The technology uses environment friendly material like soybean based polyester and fiberglass. It is a closed technology with minimal emission. Sandwich material is in the form of polymer spheres 3-6mm. Focus is to cover the spheres with a layer of polyester and fill the spheres fast enough to produce 5 - 10 large structures per hour.
Results and expected effects
The result is that we could with our developed equipment fill 50 liter corematerial per minute. In production is 30-35 liter per minute more realistic due to start och stop. We can fill a 4 kvm bus side modul with average 30 mm core in 4 min which was the goal. We will in next step try to shorten the cycletime by a combination of sphere filling with a new polymer foam with similar strength.
Approach and implementation
We built a test filling equipment together with Trelleborg and test run it. After that tested we how to build a modular bus side at Coman Bus. We tested process time and production cost.