QUALIFIBRE · Qualification and Diagnosis of Carbon and Glass Fibre-Reinforced Composites with Non-Destructive Measurement Technologies

Today, fibre-reinforced composites (CRP/GRP) can be found in high tech applications like in aerospace and energy industry. The production of these materials is expensive and the quality control is often manually conducted. As the processes of quality control and even the way how to analyse and characterize damage and defects within fibre-reinforced composites are not standardized yet, parts consisting of these materials are replaced instead of being repaired, often without being sure, whether the function of the part is negatively affected or not. It can be easily imagined, that high costs occur by this approach.In the future fibre-reinforced composites will be increasingly used in every industrial sector, in which material characteristics like light weight in combination with high resistance is required. Especially automotive industry is now focussing on these new materials, looking for innovative application areas e.g. trim parts without additional finishing. For this purpose manufacturing processes and material costs have to be developed in a comparable range of today’s costs.The proposed project will examine the possible ways for an adequate quality assurance for CFP- or GRP-components. To receive calculable quality, measurement methods and data processing procedures are necessary. Considering different aspects of CRP/GRP-products it is obvious, that only non-destructive technologies like 3D-computer tomography, thermography and ultrasonic scanning in correlation with intelligent software solutions will lead to significant and evaluable results.The overall aim is to achieve a comparable and measurable quality standard for CRP/GRP products. This will prepare applied CRP/GRP products to enter large-scale markets and new industries. The project results and the gathered knowledge will allow the SMEP to expand their portfolio. This will improve the SMEPs competitive position in the global market.