New York State Vehicle Composites Program at WCX17
UV+EB Technology
The New York State Vehicle Composites Program will be at the Society of Automotive Engineers WCX17 exhibition in Detroit, Michigan, April 4-6. X-ray cured hoods and an X-ray cured chassis will be on display at its booth (#3606) in Cobo Hall. A paper on the “X-ray Curing of Carbon Fiber Composites for Structural Automotive Components” will be given on Thursday morning, April 6, as part of Session M302 on Automotive Composite Structures in room 336.
The New York State Vehicle Composites Program extended its work on X-ray curing of composites to cure a structural automotive component – a chassis – using X-rays derived from high-current industrial accelerators. In curing a non-structural component – performance vehicle hoods – a full-scale commercial X-ray curing facility would demand 40-percent less input power per unit than conventional thermal curing, as in using fully loaded commercial autoclaves.
With X-rays, curing would take place in less than a minute using shelf-stable matrix materials. Hoods were made using an X-ray curable pre-preg and commercial thermosetting pre-pregs, and power demand determinations were made. X-rays can penetrate metals embedded within plies and bond to them without heat. Non-thermal ultraviolet was used to cure a pigmented coating onto the vehicle hoods.
In its initial work, non-thermal X-ray curing produced vehicle fenders with Class A finishes since there was no heat distortion. This program has been co-funded by the New York State Research and Development Authority with team members coming from New York, including:
Dan Montoney, Rapid Cure Technologies, East Syracuse, New York
Dan Dispenza, Nordan Composites Technologies, Patchogue, New York
Rick Galloway, IBA Industrial, Inc., Edgewood, New York
Marshall Cleland, IBA Industrial, Inc., Edgewood, New York
Len Poveromo, Composite Prototyping Center, Plainview, New York
Mark Driscoll, SUNY-ESF, Syracuse, New York
Tony Berejka, Ionicorp+, Lloyd Harbor, New York NYSERDA contractor
For more information, contact Tony Berejka.
