JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #86 - January/February 2014 - 39

combined with the inner steel shell
of the B-pillar, and the final hybrid
structure is cured and joined by hot
pressing. Such a process is seen as
feasible by automotive OEMs even for
production rates above 100,000 units
a year and in evaluation for large serial
projects - and it is expected to be
soon on the market.

Market potential
The market potential for carbon fibre
prepreg in automotive is difficult to
estimate due to the fact that it is not
decided yet which technologies will
dominate the different subsegments of
the automotive market.
Figure 3 shows SGL Group's view on
the market development of carbon
fibre usage in the industrial segment.
Automotive will be the strongest
growing subsegment with a CAGR
of more than 30% between 2015 and
2020. It will be the largest subsegment in 2015 already, and will grow
further until 2020 to a total of about
30 ktons of carbon fibre consumption.
Assuming a share of prepreg between
10% and 30% and a 300 g/m² fibre
areal weight, this carbon fibre demand
translates into 10-30 million sqm of

carbon fibre prepreg consumption in
2020.
However, some game changers might
reduce or improve the share of prepreg. Tremendous efforts are put in
the further development of carbon
fibre-reinforced thermoplastics such
as organo-sheets. In general, these
materials will integrate better into the
established automotive manufacturing
process than the current epoxy-based
CFRP. This can force epoxy prepregs
to be expelled out of the automotive
market. On the other hand, recycling
and other needs drive the future use
of secondary carbon fibres, such
as non-woven fabrics. The use of
prepregs based on these non-wovens
for automotive components might
enhance the market share of prepreg
in the automotive industry.
Summarizing, prepregs might benefit
from the penetration of carbon fibre
composites in the automotive market.
They can find applications in near
plain structures such as reinforcement
parts in hybrid components. Advantages such as easy joining possibilities and good suitability for the

production of preformed multilayer
structures might even make them a
material of choice for some components. A rough estimation shows that
the prepreg volume might exceed by
far 10 million sqm in 2020. n

More information:
www.sglgroup.com
Acknowledgements
The author acknowledges Gascogne
Laminates for the preparation and
organization of the Prepreg Excellence
Days. Furthermore, he would like to
thank Dr. Uwe Kobs, Sebastian Grasser
and Dr. Andreas Erber from SGL Group
for their support and discussions.
References
[1] "Serienproduktion von hochfesten
Faserverbundbauteilen - Perspektiven
für den deutschen Maschinen- und
Anlagenbau", Roland Berger Strategy
Consultants and VDMA Forum Composite Technology, www.vdma.org/
composites

Feature Prepreg

No86 January - February 2014 /

jec composites magazine 39

http://www.sglgroup.com http://www.vdma.org/composites http://www.mondigroup.com http://www.glotechgf.com

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #86 - January/February 2014

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