DTC Dutch Thermoplastic Components, Kok & Van Engelen, NLR National Aerospace Laboratory of the Netherlands, TenCate Advanced Composites and VIRO announced on 8 October their decision to collaborate in a European Thermoplastic Automotive Composites consortium (eTAC) to promote the use of these materials in the automotive sector.
The partners in the eTAC consortium have a track record in the aviation industry in the past few decades, but believe the composites that have been used in the automotive sector until now, primarily in sports cars and high-end models, are proving not to be entirely satisfactory. Their processing capability does not yet meet the required industrial production rates, particularly in the automotive industry, in part due to the number of units to be produced and environmental standards.
While there has already been project-based collaboration in the automotive sector, the eTAC members say its collaboration will take on a more structured form and content, in order to speed up industrial solutions.
eTAC says the current rapidly growing interest in composites will have to be translated into specific business cases. The creation of industrial processing capability will encourage the use of such materials in the automobile sector. Knowledge relating to the application of thermoplastic composite technology is not widely available in the market, in part because this technology is still relatively new outside the aviation sector. The eTAC consortium will provide potential users with this knowledge when defining their applications. It will involve the entire production chain in this, since it is a new technology both in the field of materials and in the processing of these materials into end products.
eTAC is a project-driven partnership that will provide solutions requested by car manufacturers and their supply chains. eTAC says it can link up with existing networks, research centres and knowledge institutions, such as TPRC (ThermoPlastic composite Research Center). The NLR National Aerospace Laboratory of the Netherlands is to be involved in testing production processes and validating pilot installations and demonstrators. The partnership claims to possess all the necessary knowledge to make an essential contribution to current development issues relating to composite use in innovative mobility concepts, such as hybrid and electric cars.
The international presence of the partners in eTAC will enable their joint services to be offered locally, in the Netherlands, the UK and Germany. New players will be invited to participate in eTAC either on a project basis or as permanent partners.
