Manufacturing .... p25 manufacturing Reinforcement .... p33 Body panel ............ p36 Collaboration speeds up automotive manufacturing Suspension ........... p38 Wishbone .............. p40 Feature Automotive A new challenge for composite materials! Seats ......................... p43 Beam ......................... p47 Urban vehicle ...... p51 Henkel has developed a new polyurethane matrix resin for the resin transfer moulding process (RTM) that will speed up the production of composite components in the automotive industry. Henkel’s know-how in the field of polyurethanebased composite matrix resins and the expertise of KraussMaffei, one of the world’s leading makers of manufacturing and processing machinery for plastics, have proven to be a perfect match. The outcome: curing times of just one minute are now possible – a significant advance for fast and efficient volume production of fibre composite components. By Frank Deutschländer, Global Market Manager Automotive Dr. Andreas Ferencz, Manager Composites Henkel AG & Co. D riven by fuel efficiency targets and the resulting need for lightweight solutions, composite components have become an increasingly important factor in the multi-material design of modern cars. Offering high strength combined with low weight, glass or carbon fibre-reinforced composite materials are especially suited for the manufacture of motor vehicle components. Particularly for mass-produced automobiles, resin injection processes such as RTM now predominate. [ 1 ] Henkel has pooled its expertise in developing composite matrix resins and in fundamental research on No82 July 2013 / jec composites magazine 25http://www.selcom-srl.com