Competitive and sustainable molds for tomorrow's composite production through function-integrating additive technologies

The SmartMold joint project, which is part of a German-Czech consortium of research institutes and SMEs, aims to research and develop a new type of technology for the rapid and economical production of multifunctional and sustainable molds for the manufacture of composite components, for example for the aviation, automotive or railway industry. SmartMold aims to address this shortcoming through smart production systems and provide a technology that allows to produce heatable and sensored molds faster, cheaper, resource efficient and 100% recyclable. In this context, SmartMold combines the additive manufacturing of plastic molds with the automatized integration of resistive heating elements consisting of plastic-impregnated carbon fiber rovings (yarns), which are introduced topology-optimized into the surface layer of the mold surface. Both the additive manufacturing of the base mold and the integration of the CF resistance heating elements are carried out in an extruder-based direct granulate process, so that both process steps could be carried out in one manufacturing cell. The base mold and the heating elements are made of the same carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic material, so that the entire mold can be easily and completely recycled at the end of the series.