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RapidMade launches thermoformable carbon fiber

RapidMade Inc. thinks its new thermoformable carbon fiber process, Aerolite, has real potential to disrupt how to make lightweight, high strength-to-weight ratio parts. The company is collaborating with Westlake Plastics Co. to launch the new solution and will reduce production time by 97 percent, reduce cost by 75 percent and improve consistent quality.

About a year ago, Lenni, Pa.-based Westlake Plastics approached RapidMade, which has been in the thermoforming business for 12 years, with the idea of thermoforming carbon fibers. RapidMade of Tualatin, Ore., is Westlake Plastics' only partner for manufacturing parts.

"This is on another level, mechanically, compared to anything else that we can form here in our shop," said Micah Chaban, vice president of sales and marketing for RapidMade.

"It was obvious to me that this is something that I could easily sell and generate a lot of interest for," Chaban said.

The companies saw the opportunity to come into the market at a much lower price point than its competitors. Within the last quarter, Westlake Plastics has visited RapidMade to give the process a trial run and start running a full-service product.

Aerolite is available in two grades, 15 percent and 30 percent infill, and two thicknesses, 1.5 millimeters and 2.5 mm. It has a tensile strength of 200 MPa and flexural strengths up to 253 MPa.

The company has completed its ISO 9001 stage 2 audit and is awaiting confirmation.

Traditional carbon fiber processes are expensive because they rely on a labor-intensive hand lay-up process and cycle times that can extend for hours and cause a difficulty in scaling production. Also, with the process being by hand, there can be more inconsistencies within quality.

RapidMade's Aerolite is cutting the hours of production time down to two to three minutes, allowing for a higher production rate and reduced tooling costs.

"Manufacturers know tooling costs are really killer. If you have to invest thousands of dollars into tooling, it makes it really hard to scale," Chaban said. "If we are able to make 50 to 60 times the amount of parts off a mold in the same time, that's much less tooling that people have to buy; it makes it more economical."

Aerolite has had a positive response from end market customers and see themselves transitioning to it. It does come with some design guidelines from RapidMade; the product does have a different look to it than the tradition way and has more of a matte finish over a visible pattern of the fibers.

There is also a draw ratio limitation: The ratio of the part can only be about half as tall as it is wide, and the process doesn't allow for much control over end result wall thickness.

If customers are buying a lot of products and request a certain thickness, then RapidMade can work with the customers to achieve what they are looking for. The company is in the process of working through some of its issues and seeing what it can do for its customers.

"We are stuck with the limitations of thermoforming," Chaban said. "I have design guidelines for thermoforming, and you're always going to have to make your part a well-made thermoformed product. From the thickness concern, that's more of a demand thing."

The company is competing with injection and compression molded chopped carbon fiber products. When RapidMade was doing further research, the company saw an advantage over these processes due to thermoforming still having lower tooling costs, labor costs and cycle times.

Applications for Aerolite would be most ideal for industries such as aerospace, robotics, automotive and heavy industrial.

"This is something with a lot of real-world applications," Chaban said. "Every time I talk to a customer, their eyes light up. They can see how this would solve problems in their own production."

* Source : https://www.plasticsnews.com/news/rapidmade-launches-thermoformable-carbon-fiber

* Edit : HANDLER