Sprayed Carbon Fibre

As mentioned in previous posts, Light Black Design  have been working closely with Bentley Motors in the UK, to help them develop a possible process to produce components for future cars within the VW Group.

Key to the engineering of these parts are the use of PUR for the matrix and combining this with a process developed by Bentley Motors called DCFP (Directed Carbon Fibre Preforming).

Key to the potential success of this process is the ability to "spray" chopped carbon fibres (approx 100mm long) onto the mould or part surface whilst still keeping a high degree of alignment of the fibres. This effectively gives you a composite panels with approx 80% of the properties of a Uni-directional tape, but with a fraction of the labour and material costs.

Whilst this is still being developed by Bentley for their automotive products, they are very keen to look at other possible applications, such as marine. I have spoken to them about several possible uses, and I feel that this would be perfect for monolithic parts such as RIBS and tenders. Here, the use of carbon is usually restricted due to material and labour costs, but with this process both of these will be reduced (the labour could even be removed if robots are used). And when every 10% you save in vehicle weight (be it boats or cars) you can save 7% of the fuel. And when you consider the fact that fuel is costing around £1.80 per litre on the rivers now, the potential saving in running costs cannot be ignored.

If any further details are required or if you may have a possible application for this process, then please contact us at any time at Info@LightBlackDesign.com

Optimising the composite structure of RIBS

REDUCING THE WEIGHT AND COST OF PRODUCTION RIBs

Late in the summer of 2010 we were contacted by a leading manufacturer of RIBs in the UK, Coastline Marine, who are looking to further improve the quality of their current line of boats whilst simultaneously reducing the weight and even the overall costs.

Key to this project is my thorough understanding of "what is appropriate" for this type of business. Together with the key people at Coastline we are looking closely at their current laminates and carefully defining new materials that fit within with the current techniques used there. This will result in a more efficient layup that will reduce the production costs and structural weight of the boats. This weight saving is critical to this type of boat where a 10% reduction can typically save 6% of the fuel costs.