The five composite materials that will be added to the database include:
- PULSE 630GF
- 13 percent short glass-filled PC/ABS resin
- High stiffness, processability, foam adhesion, heat stability, post processing
- Low CLTE (coefficient of linear thermal expansion), scrap generation
- Uses: car interiors, instrument panels, air ducts
- PULSE 979
- 10 percent glass-filled PC/ABS resin
- High stiffness, processability, dimensional stability
- Uses: instrument panels
- VELVEX 5250
- 25 percent short glass fiber-filled elastomer/PP
- High stiffness, impact, heat resistance, processability, scratch and mar resistance
- Low CLTE, gloss
- Uses: soft touch applications, trim components
- ENLITE PP LGF 6002
- 60 percent long glass fiber-filled polypropylene concentrate (PP dilution is customizable)
- High weight savings versus metals, impact, dimensional stability
- Uses: panel carriers, front-end carriers, semi-structural parts
- ENLITE ABS Alloy LGF 6001
- 60 percent long glass fiber concentrate (ABS dilution customizable)
- High weight savings in hot environments, creep performance, heat stability
- Low CLTE, moisture absorption
- Uses: semi-structural parts
"Digimat enables engineers to accurately predict mechanical behavior of parts made of our fiber-filled thermoplastics as it takes the anisotropy due to the fiber orientation and the fiber length distribution into account," said Gerhard Slik, senior development specialist at Trinseo. “Therefore, we have decided to characterize our fiber-filled thermoplastics and make them available in the Digimat-MX database.”
“Besides our short glass-filled PULSE PC/ABS grades and our reinforced elastomeric resin VELVEX, we have also added our recently launched ENLITE structural polymers,” he added. “The latter are long glass fiber-filled PP and ABS concentrates which can be diluted to a wide range of glass level in the end product. Especially when it comes to saving weight in modern vehicles, these materials play a key role in the replacement of metals.”
Composite materials are an important part of the transportation trends to reduce vehicle weight and fuel consumptions. However, engineers will need to quickly assess these new parts to ensure the safety of the consumer under various loads, temperatures and conditions.
Guillaume Boisot, business development manager at MSC Software’s e-Xstream engineering, noted these trends and safety concerns. He said, "Digimat-MX now contains information on Trinseo grades to address engineering and end-user composite modelling needs while minimizing component weight, cost and time-to-market.”
What products would you like to see added to Digimat’s library? Comment below.