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Currently, new processing techniques for unidirectional reinforced materials are being developed. The use of these materials has several advantages over pre-consolidated fabric reinforced laminates such as lower cost per kilogram of semi-finished product and the possibility to tailor the lay-up of a product. The product can be optimised by tailoring the lay-up of the blanks; a variable thickness can further reduce the weight of the final product by removing material at areas with a lower mechanical loading. Tailoring blanks manually is a very time consuming process and is sensitive to inaccuracies.
The lay-up and pre-consolidation steps with present techniques are currently a bottleneck in the production process compared to the very short thermoforming cycles of thermoplastic composites. By optimising the cycle time of both lay-up and pre-consolidation of the tailored blanks, a better connection can be achieved between the preparation of tailored blanks and press forming.
