asahi kasei is developing a range of composite thermoplastic resin materials to replace metal parts.
asahi kasei’s unidirectional tape (ud-tape) is a tape-like material consisting of unidirectionally woven carbon fiber-reinforced polyamide resin. ud-tape has excellent strength and stiffness per weight and other excellent mechanical properties, making it ideal for replacing metal parts with resin substitutes in a variety of products, including automotive components, electrical and electronic components, aircraft components, sports and leisure products, and construction materials – to reduce product weight and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions during transportation and product use.
ud-tape can also be welded to other thermoplastic resin materials and, when combined with the excellent shape flexibility offered by injection molding, can produce multi-material component structures with sufficient strength and stiffness, especially where conventional injection molding cannot produce in the case of components of sufficient strength and rigidity.
application case study1: winding ud-tapeinto pipe
winding manufacturing technology, in which heated ud-tape is continuously wound on a mandrel, can produce high-strength pipes and hoop reinforcements.
application case study2: strengthening injection molded parts with insert molding
insert molding is a process in which a strength-reinforcing insert—a molded body made from ud-tape by press molding or automatic tape laying—is placed inside a mold prior to injection molding, thereby form injection molded parts with built-in integral strength reinforcements.
asahi kasei tested the insert molding performance of ud rings formed by the winding method described above. tensile strength measurements at 90°c and 50% relative humidity showed that the tensile strength of the ud-tape reinforcement was almost doubled with a thickness of only 0.4 mm.
application case study3: utilizing ud-tapeheat-pressing slices to form complex shaped parts strong>
thick-walled and ribbed parts can be fabricated by thermoforming ud-tape chips (rectangular pieces produced by slicing or cutting ud-tape).
typical conditions for hot press molding: melt temperature 260-280°c, extraction temperature 80-100°c, pressure 3-5mpa, pressurized melting time 5-10 minutes).
