UTILIZING ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING TO ENABLE LOW-COST, RAPID FORMING OF HIGH TEMPERATURE LIGHTWEIGHT GROUND VEHICLE STRUCTURES

Barriers to the introduction of composite materials for ground vehicle applications include material property selection and cost effective material processing. Advancements in processing of thermoplastic composites for use in applications for semi structural and structural applications have created opportunities in “Out of Autoclave” processing utilizing preconsolidated unidirectional reinforced tapes. Traditional tooling for the bending formation of high temperature reinforced structural thermoplastic laminates typically involves matched metal tooling consisting of steel or aluminum and are costly and heavy. In this research, a comparative analysis was performed to evaluate the use of a large scale 3D printed forming tool in comparison to a traditional metallic mold. Material processing considerations included the development of a technique for localized laminate heating to achieve optimized energy input in the forming process. Considerations in tooling development included the comparison of the overall cost, lead times and embodied energy. This comparison also included the design and simulation of process engineering to form the parts in both cases.

Citation: D. Erb, B. Dwyer, J. Roy, W. Yori, R.A. Lopez-Anido, A. Smail, R. Hart, “Utilizing Additive Manufacturing To Enable Low-Cost, Rapid Forming Of High Temperature Lightweight Ground Vehicle Structures”, In Proceedings of the Ground Vehicle Systems Engineering and Technology Symposium (GVSETS), NDIA, Novi, MI, Aug. 10-12, 2021.