Thermoplastic composite constructions open up great potential in the automotive industry for weight reduction, thus allowing a significant reduction of the emissions and the fuel consumption of vehicles. Dedicated to the concept of Green Mobility, Lanxess is expanding its position in fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites for lightweight construction applications. Extensive investments already have been made, in areas ranging from the development of custom materials and simulation methods, and the determination of characteristic material values to component testing. Further, project management is being expanded to support both Lanxess customers and their customers in developing innovative composite components. In view of the trend towards lightweight electric cars and lightweight, fuel-saving motor vehicles, Lanxess is concentrating intensively on thermoplastic composite sheet hybrid technology based on polyamide. Compared to pure metal, or metal/plastic hybrid designs, this technology offers great potential for saving on component weight.

Lanxess CEO Dr. Axel Heitmann said: "This year we will focus on green mobility and what we can do to support the cause. Our scientists are developing innovative products and technologies based on renewable raw materials, sustainable manufacturing processes and economically compatible methods of disposal that help to protect the environment.

PA-based composite sheet hybrid technology
Lanxess's expertise in thermoplastic lightweight construction solutions builds in part on the plastic/metal hybrid technology used to fabricate, for example, front ends, brake pedals and pedal brackets. Hybrid components are usually 20 to 30 % lighter than their pure steel counterparts while offering the same performance. Even more weight can be eliminated if the sheet metal is replaced by lightweight polyamide composite sheet reinforced with continuous fibers, shaped in accordance with hybrid technology and back-injected with polyamide. This cuts component weight by another 10 percent over aluminum hybrid designs. Even greater savings are achieved compared to hybrid components with steel inserts. According to Lanxess, there is a great potential for polyamide composite sheet hybrid technology in the production of door sills, B pillars and seat cross-members.

Precision simulation of all process steps
The German specialty chemicals and plastics manufacturer is now capable of simulating all the process steps in polyamide based thermoplastic composite sheet hybrid technology. Recently, the company succeeded in simulating the extremely complex processes involved in shaping polyamide composite sheet. Now Lanxess can not only calculate locally varying fiber alignments in a molded polyamide composite sheet, but can also determine when multiple folds will form during shaping, how the semi-finished product is best positioned in the mold and the limit conditions for thermoforming. The locally varying fiber alignments must be known input parameters for mechanical structural analysis in integrative simulation, so that anisotropic material behavior can be taken into account in the component design.

HiAnt - Custom service for successful projects
Lanxess conducts its own, complex experiments to determine the characteristic material values required to simulate various process steps and analyze mechanical structure. For example, the recent investments included a large tensile testing machine to determine, for instance, crash-relevant characteristic material data for polyamide hybrid composites in accelerated tensile strength at break experiments. In collaborative projects, the company incorporates these characteristic values and subsequent calculations in the component design process. These services are part of HiAnt, a competence brand under which Lanxess has pooled its expertise in thermoplastic materials, design, simulation and process engineering. The customer service associated with HiAnt includes material selection support, manufacturing cost estimation, structural CAE calculations, mold filling simulations and warpage minimization, mold construction, component testing and assistance in starting up full-scale production.