Digital Production Line at Voith Composites

Voith Composites

More than lightweight – groundbreaking innovation for a faster production of cost-efficient and high–performance parts

Composites 4.0 at the service of the industry

At Voith Composites we design and manufacture industry-leading carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP) - lightweight, strong materials used for a wide range of applications.

 

With our state-of-the-art Composites 4.0 digital production line, including the award-winning Voith Roving Applicator NextGen, we set the highest standards in CFRP parts manufacturing and are pioneering innovative processes for the future, such as sustainable and recyclable composites.

If your organization operates in automotive, paper industry or other industries, we provide faster, easier and more consistent composites manufacturing, from prototype to scale production to save you time and resources. We leverage our 10 years experience and know-how in filament winding thick-walled products such as CFRP rolls for paper machines to offer highly innovative and performing hydrogen tanks.

Our products

    Carbon4Tank
    700 BAR HYDROGEN VESSELS
    Carbon4Tank

    Carbon4Tank is a type IV high-pressure H₂ tank made with towpreg filament winding technology.

    learn more about carbon4tank
    Tailored stack made by Voith Composites
    Automotive Structural Parts
    High-performance CFRP Components

    We design and produce customized composites in a fully automated and digitized manufacturing environment, raising the bar in automotive manufacturing quality. 

    Learn more about Automotive Structural Parts

    Our markets

      Find out about our current applications and successfully implemented composite projects:

      Automotive

      Rear wall Audi A8
      Structural component
      Audi A8 CFRP rear wall

      The rear wall is customized for the Audi A8 and displays the largest component of the occupant call. With its optimized fiber layup with 6 to 19 carbon fiber layers, it significantly contributes to the torsional rigidity of the vehicle. The rear wall is manufactured in Voith Composites' in-house developed production line and is designed to manufacture approximately 65,000 components each year. At JEC World 2018, we received the JEC Innovation Award 2018 for this digital production line.

      digital production line wins JEC Award 2018
      Carbon4Tank
      Fuel cell applications
      Carbon4Tank: CFRP hydrogen high-pressure vessels

      We are shaping the future by industrializing and automating clean and fast production of high-pressure hydrogen tanks (700 bar) made with TowPreg filament winding technology. Our CFRP Type 4 tanks are designed for heavy-duty commercial vehicles and offer a sustainable solution at automotive quality standards. The combined expertise of Voith Turbo & Voith Composites results in high-performing  H₂ storage systems - The plug & Drive H₂ Storage System. It uses Carbon4Tank and focuses on deep customer integration, sustainability and circularity ovre the product lifecyle.

      Industry

      High quality carbon fiber rolls for paper machines
      Paper industry
      Carbon4Roll: High quality carbon fiber rolls for paper machines

      Guide rolls made of steel are often operated above their capacity limits, which can result in vibrations and thermal deformations. Unlike steel, the strength and rigidity of CFRP rolls can be adapted to the specific requirements without altering the installation space. Moreover, the much lower density ensures a significant weight reduction. CFRP components also offer a range of other benefits, like low thermal expansion or excellent running properties. Thus, composites are typically used for various guide rolls along the entire paper manufacturing process in the paper industry.

      SpeedSizer AT
      Paper Industry
      CFRP Applicator Beams

      Voith Paper uses the reduced thermal expansion behavior of CFRP in its coating units SpeedFlow, SpeedSizer and Dynacoat to increase production quality for the end customer. Conventional coater beams are made of metallic materials and deform strongly due to one-sided thermal loads. This must be compensated for by additional technology such as active temperature control.

       

      When using CFRP coater beam, this additional effort is completely eliminated. Uniform transversal coating profiles during application as well as a constant coating weight under all operating conditions are guarenteed by the thermally dimensionally stable coaster beam. In addition, the complexity of the entire coating unit system is reduced and thus the maintenance effort as well as energy and operating costs are lowered.

      Marine
      CFRP blades for the Voith Inline Thruster

      In cooperation with Voith Turbo, blades for the Voith Inline Thruster (VIT) were manufactured from CFRP. This set a new standard for the coating quality of anti-cavitation coating. Moreover, the blades are characterized by a high UD proportion.

       

       

      Voith Composites won JEC Innovation Award 2022

      Our preforming technologies

        Voith Roving Applicator NextGen

        Tailored stack made by the Voith Roving Applicator

        Voith Roving Applicator (VRA) NextGen

        Instead of applying a binder like the VRA from the first generation does, the VRA NextGen can impregnate the resin directly into the fibers. This further streamlines the process chain and makes it easier to handle workpieces – especially if they are manufactured within the same production line.

        Voith Roving Applicator

        Voith Roving Applicator (VRA)

        Voith Roving Applicator (VRA)

        The Voith Roving Applicator (VRA) is a fully automatic direct fiber placement machine with high, scalable lay-up rates. At JEC World 2017, the VRA technology won the JEC Innovation Award.

        The method uses cost-effective raw materials such as untreated rovings and binder powder to produce a near-net-shape dry stack as part of the fully automated preform production. The VRA produces components efficiently, inclusive of individual fiber distribution and local reinforcements.

        VRA Wins JEC Innovation Award 2017

        Filament Winding Process

        Filament Winding Process

        Filament Winding Process

        The Filament Winding Process enables high precision for rolls and shafts: the fiber is unwound from a roving spool, led through a resin bath for impregnation and then wound onto the mandrel. The wound laminate is tempered in an oven to let the resin react and cure what gives the composite structure its stiffness and strength. Finally, the mandrel is pulled from the composite roll.

        Research and development

          We continue to enhance our expertise in numerous development projects – on our own and with research and industry partners.

          R&D at Voith Composites in Garching

          R&D and production center

          Voith Composites is the R&D and production center of carbon fiber-reinforced composites within the Voith Group. At two locations, our highly qualified experts develop machines for the manufacture of prototypes up to serial production. We are working with state-of-the-art development tools:

           

          • Design with CATIA and Inventor
          • FE simulations using ANSYS and Abaqus
          • Material analyses using DMTA, TGA, CT and microscopy
          • ThinPly
          • In house burst tests at our own test station
          3D CAD model rear wall Audi A8

          Engineering

          Using our know-how from real-life customer projects and ongoing research, we provide strong support at every stage of the development phase. From the start, we offer feasibility and concept studies for composite parts, tooling and special machinery. Working at any depth of detail required, we develop our customer’s ideas using mechanical design (CAD) to structural and process simulation (FEA) to virtual process layup – always keeping composites-based design and cost-efficient manufacturing processes in mind.

           

           

          Resources

            Content

            Production CFRP stack for E-Coating automotive components
            case study
            BMW M & Voith Composites Successfully Test Streamlined E-Coating Process for CFRP Parts

            BMW M is an innovator in the automotive industry. While CFRP techniques are slowly being adopted by some auto manufacturers, the BMW Group and BMW M are already realizing the potential of having successfully integrated CFRP parts.

            download the case study
            Horyzn’s eVTOL
            Case Study
            The sky’s the limit for HORYZN emergency UAV defibrillator

            HORYZN is a student initiative focused on real-world use cases for UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). The team from TU Munich works collaboratively on the design, development, and implementation of UAVs for social good. Voith Composites was approached to support HORZYN’s latest project, an eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) UAV for medical emergencies, providing its CFRP tooling solution – Carbon4Tool - which has helped the project achieve early success.

            Read the case study
            Prepreg tape line (PTL) integrated in the Voith Roving Applicator NextGen
            White Paper
            How Composites 4.0 is changing the production of lightweight parts

            Composites 4.0 is part of what we know as Industry 4.0 or more commonly, digital transformation. It enables automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies within the composites industry. It’s about developing technology to make the best of composite manufacturing - building smart factories and processes that are optimized to reduce waste and cost while increasing the quality of composite parts.

            Download the white paper
            Carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP) prepreg material for tooling applications.
            Case Study
            DUQUEINE Group x Carbon4Tool

            DUQUEINE Group - a world-class manufacturer of composite parts in France - joined forces with Voith Composites to test Carbon4Tool - Voith’s innovative new carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP) prepreg material for tooling applications.

            News

            Towpreg winding of a H2-Tank
            2022-05-04
            Voith Composites and V-Carbon partner to develop the first sustainable closed-loop solution for CFRP materials for H₂-systems

            Voith Composites, Composites 4.0 leader and production center of carbon fiber-reinforced composites in the Voith Group, today announces its intent to partner with V-Carbon, an advanced materials technology company that delivers sustainable carbon fiber material systems. The partnership will establish and deliver industry leading innovation to achieve the first sustainable and closed-loop solution for CFRP materials for H₂ systems.

            read more
            Voith Composites at JEC World 2022
            2022-04-26
            Voith Composites wins JEC Composites Innovation Award ahead of JEC World 2022

            Voith Composites, the Composites 4.0 industry leader and production center of carbon fiber-reinforced composite solutions (CFRP) in the Voith Group, has won the JEC Composites Innovation Award 2022 for the development of the Voith Inline Thruster CFRP rotor blades using Carbon4Stack and Carbon4Tool.

            read more

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