Translational Research in Carbon Fibre and Composites and the Factory of the Future

March 2017

2

About Swinburne

Advanced Manufacturing & Design Centre ($100M)

Swinburne’s new home for design and innovation

– Factory of the Future– Design Factory– Pilot Plant facility for micro-photonics/solar materials

Swinburne Research and Innovation Ecosystem

Industry 4.0 is described as the fourth industrial revolution and utilizes recent advances in communications and digital technologies including the “internet of things” to automate and control production processes so that they run seamlessly and smoothly. 

Manufacturing Futures InstituteThe Swinburne Manufacturing Futures Research Institute (MFI) is Australia’s first dedicated research institute focused on Industry 4.0

Our research programs include:1. industrial automation 2. industrial internet 3. new manufacturing processes for next generation materials 4. design driven manufacturing innovation

To support these programs, we are working on three new initiatives as part of our strategic plan for research:

1. establish Australia’s first Industry 4.0 Testlab2. create the world’s first Graphene certification centre, and3. Build an Industry 4.0 Research Hub

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj_MgYUxro4&feature=youtu.be

Industry 4.0 Testlab

Challenges for Carbon Fibre Products • Key challenges are cost and rate• Global design teams – standardization,

collaboration, parallelization of work flows• Smart materials, embedded sensors,

predictive maintenance• Process Simulation Control hardware and

systems integration• Process flexibility• Target sectors: automotive, rail,

aerospace and defence

Industry 4.0 Exemplar- BMW i3

+270kg

‐340kg

1500kg

‐200kg1200kg

Industry 4.0 Exemplar- BMW i3

Insert robot ballet video here

Daimler AG

CFRP Rear Panel – Lightweight Construction

Specifics

• 50% weight reduction

• 2-shelled construction

• Load curve suitable design

• Efficient SPP process

• Fast resin process - 1 minute cycle

• Integration in assembly

Quo Vadis CFRP - JEC Asia - 2016-11-14

Mercedes‐AMG GT R 

Industry 4.0 Platform for Automated Manufacturing of Composites Products Design Concept

Complete process stages from fabric cutting through resin application, to pressing and trimming.

Flexible and multifunctional equipment that can be adapted, expanded and changed to suit purpose of Testlab research.

Showcase for Industry 4.0 techniques, technologies and practices in manufacturing.

Hameed et al. Chem. Commun., 2015,51, 9903‐9906 

Flexible/Formable Resins

• The control over epoxy network was achieved via the complexation reactions between epoxy and ionic liquids

• Evidence of complex formation from FTIR and density functional theory calculations

Chemical communications 2015 // RSC Adv 2015 // CST submitted

Room temperature flexibility behaviour

Flexible/Formable Resins

Graphene Certification Centre

Graphene Supply Chain Certification• Key challenges – scale de-risking supply chain• Imagine Focusing on high volume applications

• 1st product release: imgne X-3® with Geofabrics (Aust)

• Global geosynthetics sector will be $18B market by 2018*

• Certification and licensing business model

Imagine IM Graphene Production

Currently production 3.2kg of Imagine IM EDG graphene per hour 

EDG is Imagine IM’s proprietary form of graphene that is used to produce geotextiles.

The Future of the Factory of the Future

• Testlab for High Volume Automated Composite Products• Industry 4.0 – Digitalization of Manufacturing• Multidisciplinary collaborative teams