Circularity, recycling, sustainability, end-of-life there are enough buzzwords today to address the need to tackle the environmental impact of material and product waste. Companies along the value chain, including AZL Partners, are challenged every day i n order to find solutions for these aspects. All projects at AZL today already cover these topics e.g. through calculating CO2 footprints of components and parts.

With this new workgroup, the topic will be further addressed. The meetings will focus on specific topics each time (e.g. recycling, circularity etc.) with the idea of bringing all the players along the value chain together. New solutions, interesting techn ologies, smart design of products plus benchmarks and analyses of AZL on specific parts will become an integral part of the program.

Already mark your calendar for the first meeting:
January 31st, 2024 only on site participation possible open for non AZL Partners

Active followers of AZL already know that this topic is widely addressed through projects (see the battery casing topics, hydrogen pressure vessels, tailgate or composites in aircraft) and also incorporated in former workgroups. Having mentioned the enviro nmental impact and challenge to address this above, the core focus here is on the upcoming trends and developments happening in the mobility of tomorrow.

With this workgroup, we want to emphasize the potential for composites and multi-material solutions as well as pick up insightful solutions and products for this market, whether it’s electric vehicles, urban air mobility or e-bikes or whether its thermoset , thermoplastic or multi material composites solutions.

Mark in your calendar for the first meeting:
April 10th, 2024 – only on-site participation possible – open for non-AZL Partners
(This event is connected to the AZL Open Day on April 11th, 2024)

Thermoplastic composites become increasingly popular in cost-driven industries due to short cycle times and recycling opportunities. Production processes combining continuous and short or long fiber reinforcements allow a high design flexibility as well as good mechanical properties at the same time. Thus, overmolding of FRP inlays is a popular process to refine and functionalize thermoplastic semi-finished products. This workgroup continuously works on the consolidation of the high-potential overmolding technology of thermoplastic FRP inlays for series production. For this purpose, knowledge exchange, technology screenings, focused investigations as well as system benchmarks advise a selection of cost-optimal materials and processes.

More Activities for Thermoplastic Composites:

The AZL Network is furthermore active in Joint Partner Projects addressing thermoplastic composites “Thermoplastic Tapes”:

• • Material and Processing Benchmark

• Ultra-fast Manufacturing of Tailored Composite Blanks

	All AZL Partner Companies involved in the value chain of thermoplastic composites are represented at our Business Platform “Thermoplastic Composites”.
	Download the Flyer with all the information on the Workgroup “Hybrid Thermoplastic Composites”

Pipes and Vessels made of composites offer high potential to improve production technology, for example concerning cycle time and material efficiency. Missing standards of testing methods and pre-product attributes as well as a lake of know-how on the long-term material performance require joint research and development activities. The AZL workgroup which was founded in 2015 addresses these needs with the development of a generic pressure vessel.

	All AZL Partner Companies involved in the value chain of Composite Pipes and Vessels will be represented soon at our Business Platform “Composite Pipes and Vessels”.
	Download the Flyer with all the information on the Workgroup “Composite Pipes & Vessels”

AZL founded the workgroup “Product Cost Benchmarking” at the end of February 2020. With the new workgroup format, the AZL is now focusing even more strongly on joint business case development. Together with more than 80 Partner Companies and experts from the RWTH Aachen University target markets and applications for composite-based multi-material technologies are regularly analyzed in live meetings on site and with cost analyses as a basis for joint technology developments.

So far, 15 composite components have already been analyzed with regard to their market potential, process chains and process steps as well as their product cost structure and cost drivers. These include components such as automotive bonnet and tailgate, battery housing, aircraft trolley, wind turbine blades or hockey stick. With this meeting format, the product cost benchmarks are jointly developed and co-designed by the participating companies.

Download the Flyer with all the information on the Workgroup “Product Cost Benchmarking”

We are expanding the established Workgroup “High-Speed RTM Matrices” to the new Workgroup “Advanced Thermoset Production”. The extension is motivated by numerous innovations in the area of thermoset processes which can only partly be covered by the so far Workgroup Focus on RTM. 

In addition to RTM processes, the  AZL Workgroup “Advanced Thermoset Production” will address:

• • All relevant liquid composite molding technologies

• • Prepreg technology

• • Advanced pultrusion

• And more

The former RTM Workgroup “High-Speed RTM Matrices” was founded by the AZL after three Workshops on “High-Speed RTM Matrices” in which the AZL partners expressed the interest to continue to work on this topic. The aim of the Workgroup was the standardization of RTM material data sheets, the needs for high reactive material test methods. The quality assurance possibilities in the RTM process were also defined. With three Workshops and five Workgroup Meetings concerning “High-Speed RTM Matrices” we are looking back to a successful Workgroup that is now extending its topics.

	All AZL Partner Companies involved in the value chain of High-Speed RTM are represented at our Business Platform “High-Speed RTM”.
	Download the Flyer with all the information on the former Workgroup “High-Speed RTM Matrices”.
	Download the Flyer with all the information on the Workgroup “Advanced Thermoset Production”.

SMC (Sheet Molding Compound) is for many years a proven and first choice solution for replacing metal parts. The drive to further weight savings and significant reduction in CO2 emissions require a next generation of High-Performance SMC with short and continuous fiber reinforced systems using both carbon and glass fibers with customized resin compounds. Class-A body panels and semi-structural parts for automotive and various industrial applications are the key target for high-performance SMC.
Within an initial workshop, participants defined material characterizations of various SMC types, methods for fast and re-liable pre-design of components and processes, an improved bonding of reinforcing fibers to the resin matrix as well as the development of new resins as most important subjects for future research and development activities. To continuously work on these subjects, a workgroup between research institutes and AZL Partner Companies has been established in in February 2016.

Read more in our Press Release.

	All AZL Partner Companies involved in the value chain of High-Performance SMC will represented soon at our Business Platform “High-Performance SMC”.
	Download the Flyer with all the information on the Workgroup “High-Performance SMC”

Joining technology is one of the key enablers for the large scale use of fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP). Due to the material-specific properties of fiber-reinforced plastics, joining is a major challenge. Within two workshops, the AZL provided a technology overview, new approaches of joining FRP as well as application oriented joining solutions.

Within a workshop, the AZL addressed the processes which are involved from the designing and planning of a lightweight component to the finished component. The aim was to define the information which is needed at the different stages of the value chain and on that basis to establish universal guidelines for designing, dimensioning as well as for the production planning of composites components.

As identified in the AZL Market and Technology Study, the high cost of composite parts prevent the market penetration in various branches. For complex parts, which are produced in various process steps, the cost structure depends on different factors in the process chains, which are not easily identified. The workshop aimed to model and to analyze process chains regarding the cost structure of composite parts. By this analysis, the bottlenecks of the process chain can be identified and technical solutions can be derived with a cost saving potential.
The process cost analysis in this workshop as well as in different AZL projects is conducted with OPLYSIS® – the intuitive drag & drop workspace for process chain modelling, cost structure calculation and automated identification of cost and time Drivers developed by AZL and Conbility.

The workshop was conducted to precise the needs of the AZL partners for an easy access to the content of public funded research projects and corresponding research institutions. As a partnership included service, the AZL has developed a research database for all public funded projects on lightweight related topics in Aachen. AZL Partner Companies can access this database in the AZL Partner Section.