AZL announces upcoming joint R&D partner projects

The Aachen Centre for Integrative Lightweight Production (AZL, Aachen, Germany) announces the kick-off meetings for its upcoming AZL Joint Partner Projects starting the end of October 2022. At these events, AZL welcomes participating project partners alongside many international companies comprising the whole value chain, from material suppliers to OEMs.

The partner project “Concept Study & Development of Cell-to-Pack Battery Casings” is geared toward developing new battery enclosure concepts for cell-to-pack architecture (learn more). This project follows up the successful multi-material battery battery casings development project, which proved a multi-material solution could enable significant weight and cost savings, verified through detailed CAD and CAE developments by the AZL engineering team. In additional follow-up projects, AZL says it will seek to develop testing devices for oblique impacts of bottom protection plates for BEV casings and to test the fire resistance of different materials. The cell-to-pack battery casing project will kick off on Oct. 27, 2022.

Another partner project, “Cost Saving Lightweight Tailgate Concept and Sustainability Study” aims to to give an overview about existing solutions, applications and their players as well as market potential for composite tailgates to meet weight and cost targets. The project will run for 10 months. Project objectives include:

• Identification of material, design and technology solutions to reduce CO₂ emissions.
• Concept developments for CO2, cost and weight reduction through composites use.
• Derivation of manufacturable designs and production concepts.
• Benchmark of concepts regarding CO₂ emissions, cost and weight.

The kick-off meeting will take place Oct. 27, 2022.

The third project, “Utility & Cargo Bikes” is emphasized by the positive growth rate of E-bikes (which have doubled in Germany in the last three years to eight million sold E-bikes). AZL says while the utility and cargo bikes sector is smaller than the E-bike market, it has the potential to grow. It is also predominantly held by smaller companies, indicating high business potential for composites-related companies to support them.

The eight-month project comprises the global identification of products, innovations, players, supply chains and plants, as well as the identification of new business potentials for composites for this sector including concept studies and business case analyses for the most promising components. The kick-off meeting is Oct. 28, 2022.

Additional details on these joint R&D projects studies can be viewed and downloaded here.