TS-Moulding - Fully automated production of continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic sandwich structures in large-scale production

Sandwich composites made from continuous fiber-reinforced plastic cover layers offer optimum lightweight performance and the associated material efficiency when implementing large-area structural components. TS-Moulding is a technology developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS, which is based on a novel thermoforming process and was specifically designed for the fully automated production of continuous fiber-reinforced sandwich components with a thermoplastic matrix in large series.

The advantages of TS-Moulding at a glance:

• Fully automated production of complex structural components in sandwich construction  
• Full exploitation of the lightweight construction potential of continuous fiber-reinforced sandwich composites with honeycomb cores
• Suitability for mass production through the manufacture of ready-to-use sandwich components in cycle times of less than one minute
• Sustainably recyclable sandwich components thanks to thermoplastic matrix systems

The implementation of TS-Moulding is based on the many years of experience of the Fraunhofer IMWS in the development of stress-optimized sandwich structures, numerically supported simulation for design-optimized structure and component design as well as process and tool development on a pilot scale. The research work is supported by systematic mechanical and process-specific characteristic value determination as well as component load tests with individual test setups in close cooperation with partners from industry.