Assembly of thermoplastic hybrid carbon composite thermosetting:customization of complex structures – SHORYUKEN

Additive manufacturing (or 3D printing) processes has achieved a certain level of industrial maturity. It makes it possible to manufacture parts with complex geometry, personalized in small series, within a reasonable time frame and at a reasonable cost without using specific tooling. However, the additive manufacturing of continuous fiber composite parts remains still limited by the orientation of the fibers in the printing planes. The assembly of 3D printed composite components by laser welding makes it possible, on the other hand, to create functional final 3D parts of large sizes with high mechanical properties (reinforcement fibers in all directions of the space) comparable to those of composite parts which are unfortunately usually limited in shape and geometry, and which are produced by conventional processes requiring expensive tools. Coupling these two processes to produce functionalized and personalized 3D composite parts with very high mechanical performance is unprecedented, and allows the production flexibility and agility with rapid change of product ranges expected by the Industry of the Future. The optimization of this innovative production process implementing a hybridization of technologies will also be based on the development of a simulation tool integrating multi-physics couplings, contributing to the deployment of Industry 4.0. Thus, two types of achievements are expected at the end of the project: a numerical simulation tool of the process, and an optimized functionalized structural part (open source) demonstrator.