The new generation of SGL Group SIGRAFIL® 50k carbon fiber, often used as basis for applications in the fields mobility and energy, is ideally suited for automated production processes and already in use as standard in the BMW i3, i8, and the new BMW 7 Series, among others. In the future, the use in further applications could be possible.
SGL Group announced that the Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) and the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) at the University of Stuttgart are currently researching a novel production process for architectonic structures based on 50k fibers. An initial installation from the project can currently be seen on the University of Stuttgart’s inner courtyard. For this endeavor, 104 kilometers of carbon fibers were provided and delivered from Moses Lake (the company site) in the state of Washington to Stuttgart.
The focus of the project is investigating natural biological construction processes of long span fiber composite structures. Serving as a model here were the larvae of the apple leaf miner moth (“Lyonetia Clerkella”), which spin cocoons on cherry and apple tree leaves using long threads of fiber.
Researchers at the ICD and ITKE, together with students of the master study program ITECH, are now trying to apply this special technique to the construction of architectonic structures made of carbon-glass-fiber-reinforced composites and develop a new production process based for fiber composite constructions.
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03 July 2017
