Manufacturing induced distortions of automotive composite parts

One of the biggest challenges for designers and manufacturers of composites-parts nowadays is to ensure that designed parts can be produced within tolerance that will cause no issue at the assembly stage. This paper that focuses on automotive applications of composite materials for structural parts will first review adapted manufacturing processes for mass production and then describes involved physics in resulting shape distortions.

Computational techniques developed to predict manufacturing-induced residual stresses and shape distortion of composites parts made of continuous fibers and thermoset matrix will be presented supported by an industrial example.

Knowing how the part will distort after manufacturing is a first step. The second one consists in finding a solution to these geometrical defects in regards to the designed part. Simulation can then be of a great help in determining the proper process parameters and new mold geometry to reach tolerances. However this paper intends to demonstrate that only the simulation of the complete manufacturing chain can validate a solution to distortions.