Series production

With hand lamination, employees work from the outside inwards: after applying a release agent on the mould surface, a gelcoat covering layer is pasted or sprayed on. Once the gelcoat cover layer has gelled, the fabric layers – consisting of glass fibres, carbon fibres, aramid fibres and natural fibres – are put into shape wet in wet using hand-held rollers, grooved rollers or brushes. Even more special materials, such as sandwich panels, or a lightweight core made out of foam or honeycomb, can be inserted in a particular designated sequence. Only through the combination of fibres and plastic and the firm bonding of the plastic matrix to the fibres can highly resilient components be produced for lorries, caravans, earth-moving machinery and agricultural machinery.

The laminates cure unpressurised at room temperature. Certain resin systems require higher temperatures for optimum curing. The components are then additionally tempered either in the mould or after demoulding.

Once the components have fully cured, further processing occurs; e.g. trimming, grinding, gluing, etc.

The advantage over hand lamination is the high degree of reproducibility. With vacuum infusion, in addition to a single-part working mould, a vacuum film or vacuum covers produced by Jaksche itself, consisting of two-component elastomers, are used. The master model of the vacuum cover is derived from our very own constructed CAD model for the tool. On top of this we have flowing aids and sealing equipment, the equalisation of the transition points and the designation of provisions to ensure the vacuum cover keeps its position at the appropriate points.

Valves are located at various points. Suction is performed through some of them by means of vacuum, while resin is injected through others. The air between the film or the vacuum cover is sucked up and, through a second connection, the fluid resin is injected into the mould by means of the vacuum generated.

This entire process is performed in a highly controller manner. The actual lamination is pretty much automatic: when the tap for the resin flow is opened, the vacuum draws the resin into the fibres. Specialist knowledge and experience is necessary for this, too. Once this process is recorded, this will always guarantee identical components – which is of immense importance in series production.

In the RTM process, various fibre materials, core materials (sandwich panels with honeycomb cores, polyurethane foam, balsa wood, and much more) and resin systems (such as polyester, vinyl ester, epoxy or phenol resins) are used. Due to the flexible combination options of different fibres, sandwich elements and free-flowing resins, many customer-specific requirements can be met with the RTM method.

After inserting the fibre reinforcement in the cavity of the tool, it is closed and the reaction mixture of resin, hardener and any catalysts is injected into the cavity under pressure. The reinforcing structure is impregnated with the mixture. The entire mould is then tempered.

After the component has been removed from the mould, the tool must be cleaned of existing resin residues at the sprue, riser and, where applicable, also at the edges prior to the next production cycle.

This thermal treatment is generally performed prior to demoulding the component. The optimum duration of the individual tempering phases, the temperatures and the temperature cycles depend on the material and its wall thicknesses. Through tempering, the resin molecules are quickly and fully interlaced, and the quicker volume shrinkage ensures the plastic has optimum product characteristics.

We have to remove volatile, low-molecular components from our products which could otherwise have an impact on the human body in interior or cabin components. Often, we achieve the desired mechanical properties even just through tempering. Meanwhile, new material types are on the market that contain almost no low-molecular components anymore. Due to the regulatory hurdles, customers are very reluctant to replace a tried-and-tested material for a product. Furthermore, because of the tempering shrinkage for existing products, new tools will almost certainly have to be built. In most cases, this is not financially appealing to customers. For new projects, getting to grips with the benefits of low-molecular material types is worthwhile.

After tempering, the next processing steps occur, such as robotic cutting, painting and the installation of built-in parts.

In order to be able to work more quickly and efficiently in series production, Jaksche has invested in two cooperating KUKA industrial robots for the automatic processing of milled parts. Consequently, Jaksche customers can be satisfied with their requirements regarding tolerance specifications and data clarity.

The autonomous standard robot cell consists of floor-integrated KL400 1CA rail tracks on which two KR100 robots and two vertical KP 1 V positioners from KUKA are installed with a payload of up to 500 kg. At this cell, various plastic components in their cutting templates can be docked to the industrial robot from two sides.

Simple separating cuts to complex 3D processing can be performed effortlessly in this way in short cycle times. To make optimum use of machine capacity, the operating times and reach capabilities of the individual robots are verified early on in the planning phase through simulations and coordinated. The SprutCAM software enables simulation and offline programming.

In addition to structural applications, adhesives can also be used as sealing and insulation materials.

A composite material joined with adhesive offers numerous advantages: even stress distribution, leak-tightness, thermal insulation, electrical conductivity, the bridging of tolerances, the prevention of contact erosion, and much more.

We offer the conditions in terms of premises and personnel to perform adhesive bonding to meet the strictest of quality and safety requirements and will support you with new developments, constructions or optimisations of components in relation to adhesive bonding. The quality of our adhesive bonds can be demonstrably ensured using internal testing equipment and with the cooperation of external testing laboratories.

With our specialist team, we provide industrial paintwork in fine structures or high-gloss surfaces in a state-of-the-art-equipped industrial painting chamber. The modern clean room paint shop guarantees the highest quality and accuracy. Even larger components can be painted easily in our 7,000 mm x 4,080 mm x 2,800 mm-large paint booth. Our processes and methods certified to ISO and customer-specific standards ensure compliance with the most stringent of requirements. Thanks to the painting processes we use, we guarantee our customers optimum opacity, enormous colour-tone brilliance, excellent coat distribution and high UV resistance.