The International Conference on Composite Materials (ICCM), held for the first time in 1975, is the largest scientific congress surrounding composite materials. This year, researchers from Capacity Area A3 represented SCCER Mobility prominently at the 21^st edition in Xi’an, China. One highlight was the keynote lecture by Prof. Véronique Michaud (Laboratory for Processing of Advanced Composites, EPFL). In her talk, she outlined new findings on liquid transfer molding, a processing technique, during which e.g. a liquid polymer is injected into the open pore spaces of a textile preform. Ongoing research investigates flow kinetics in textile preforms containing additional solid phases or a very heterogeneous pore distribution. This supports SCCER Mobility’s efforts to establish novel production pathways for light composite materials, which can be applied among others in the automotive industry. This will ultimately promote the development of lighter and thus more energy efficient vehicles.

For more details, please refer to the keynote abstract or contact Prof. Véronique Michaud.

Other session presentations by SCCER Mobility included:

• Prof. Joanna C. H. Wong (ETHZ, now at University of Calgary; photo 2^nd R): “A Method for Dispersing Particle Fillers in Thermoplastic Composites Using Commingled Yarns”

Particle-filled thermoplastic composites are produced by dispersing ceramic nanoparticles into a nonconsolidated woven textile of commingled yarns. The effects of the particles on the toughness of the matrix and the consolidated fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composite material are studied.

• Martin Eichenhofer (ETHZ; photo 2^nd L): “Investigation of Processing Parameters in Continuous Lattice Fabrication”

Experimental investigation of processing parameters on porosity in Continuous Lattice Fabrication (CLF), a novel additive manufacturing technique invented at ETH Zurich for the cost efficient deposition of fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites.

• Christoph Schneeberger (ETHZ; photo 1^st R): “Manufacture of Hybrid Bicomponent Fibers by Kiss-roll Coating”

Kiss-roll coating is proposed as a potential method to manufacture hybrid bicomponent fibers for the high-volume production of thermoplastic composites. A high-speed study is provided to prove the feasibility of the approach and the influence of different process parameters is investigated via a second-degree full factorial parameter study.