Be always one step ahead FIBER SPRAYING – BREAKTHROUGH FOR BIO-HYBRID FIBER COMPOSITE MATERIALS Brand new bio-hybrid fiber composite materials allow thinking in totally new directions especially for lightweight construction with respect to value engineering. A new fiber spraying process combines diverse natural and synthetic fibers with different polymers into versatile, tailored composites, which can themselves withstand high loads as parts. This has become possible in a single, continuous and thus significantly shortened process. At the same time, the high proportion of natural raw materials reduces the ecological footprint. The process was jointly developed and piloted by the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research WKI and Schmidt & Heinzmann GmbH.

FIBER SPRAYING – BREAKTHROUGH FOR BIO-HYBRID FIBER COMPOSITE MATERIALS The two development partners mastered the three biggest challenges in the manufacture of bio-hybrid fiber composite materials in this Fraunhofer project: Robotic fiber spraying machine With an innovative fiber spraying machine from Schmidt & Heinzmann, natural and technical fibers can be cut and sprayed with a resin-hardener blend in only one industrial process. 1. rocessing different fibers p in only one process 2. reliable fiber spraying of the threads with a high proportion of natural fibers (Photo Schmidt & Heinzmann)...

Dr. Tobias Fürst, Process Technology Manager at Schmidt & Heinzmann, describes the technical challenge as follows: ”Traditional cutting of natural fibers leads more often to unsatisfactory results or simply cannot be implemented. Additionally, cutting residues often contaminate the knife, which leads to unwanted disruptions. Our innovative and patented FiDoCut cutting head guarantees reproducible, clean cuts in an automated process, even with fiber lengths variably set in the process.” Hybrid composite materials fiber fly (CAD) The sequence of cutting, wetting with resin mixture and spraying...

Intuitively operated visualization makes tool setup easier The flexibility of the processes is achieved by targeting each individual system, whose respective process parameters are managed in transparent data structures and which is optimized and started with a large, central touch display or a portable operating panel. The findings can be summarized as follows: The machine allows an easily controllable implementation of different process versions, such as simultaneous or alternate cutting and spraying of fibers on the tool. The process variations are crosslocation via a secure access. This remote...