Child seat head restraint made of continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composite

TEP ex continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites have great potential in many fields, including lightweight structures of structural safety components. The child seat headrest developed as a technology demonstrator can be used to illustrate the opportunities provided here.

Child seat head restraint made of continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composite

The component is produced through injection molding (PCIM) process of particle foam composite material.

The light structure expert explained: "compared with the commercially produced component variant, the plug-in can reduce the weight of the head restraint by up to 30% and has quite good collision performance. This also simplifies the production process.

Efficient production process

For head restraints, the project partners have developed an alternative production process based on PCIM. In order to strengthen the head restraint in a single position and reduce weight, they used a custom insert made of TEP ex Dynalite 104-fg290 (4) / 47%. This is a polypropylene matrix composite reinforced by two layers of continuous glass fiber roving. The insert is formed in a single process using an injection molding tool with a steering plate and injected back with a short glass fiber reinforced polypropylene compound to integrate the support structure for the head restraint and backrest. Then, the granular foam based on expanded polypropylene (EPP) was used to backfill the prefabricated plug-in in second tools.

From six to one

In contrast, the current reference head restraint is mass produced using multiple individual components. The supporting structure consists of long glass fiber reinforced polypropylene. It uses four polypropylene legs to assemble with a separately foamed EPP assembly.

Potential applications, including in other components

We consider baby straps, backups and handrails, and new, highly sophisticated seat concepts in the automatic driving vehicle, new products in the production of seat seats or shuttle comfort seats.

Yidu has great potential for VIP and family buses. In particular, electric vehicles will benefit from light seats. The project leader explained:

"Not only is the new highly integrated production process more energy efficient than the previous process, but also the finished parts are produced directly. As a result, the total number of parts has been reduced from six to one, and the production cost has been reduced in terms of logistics and required machine expenditure. "

The current version of the head restraint assembly with glass fiber can reduce the weight by about 26%, although there is still more potential. According to Schramm, "if carbon fiber based reinforcements are used in composite semi-finished products and injection molding materials, the weight after assembly will be reduced by nearly 30%."