Dieffenbacher innovations focus on SMC, D-LFT

Editor’s note: CompositesWorld received several new product and technology announcements ahead of JEC World 2020, which had been scheduled for March 3-5. Although that exhibition was postponed to May, CW is now publishing the announcements we received. This is one of them.

Dieffenbacher (Windsor, Ontario, Canada) is presenting its solutions for tape laying, sheet molding compounds (SMC), direct long fiber thermoplastics (D-LFT) and wet molding technologies, as well as a new messaging and ticket system app.

The company offers fully automated, highly productive and cost-efficient production lines for applications in the automotive and transportation, building and construction, aerospace, and sports and leisure sectors.

Dieffenbacher says its automated sheet molding compound (SMC) systems can produce highly complex SMC components profitably and with consistently high quality. The systems, anchored by a press from the company’s Fiberpress series, are also reported to produce high availability and output rates.

The company’s Tailored Blank Line, consisting of the Fiberforge tape laying system and the Fibercon consolidation unit, is said to enable customers to produce more than one million components per year. Dieffenbacher’s ​​​​Tailored Blank technology is an alternative to organosheets, offering flexibility in the use of materials and causing less scrap due to the precise, load-oriented and near-net-shape laying of tapes.

Dieffenbacher also partners with Arburg (Loßburg, Germany) to offer customers an additional option for producing components with complex geometries. The combination of a Dieffenbacher vertical press with a bolt-on injection molding unit from Arburg creates a flexible production system for a range of applications in the automotive and aerospace industries. It is said to enable the processing and back injection molding of reinforcements made from continuously reinforced thermoplastics (e.g., PP, PA, PEEK) and offers the necessary precision to produce complex, thin-walled components with hybrid structures. The bolt-on unit is easily coupled to and uncoupled from the tool. In contrast to an injection molding machine, the press achieves very low component thickness tolerances and can be used for other production processes (e.g., SMC and thermoforming).

In addition, the MyMessenger messaging and ticket system app is designed to help personnel communicate internally to solve problems and to report service cases quickly and directly to Dieffenbacher for real-time assistance. MyMessenger can also translate languages between messages, so users can write and receive messages in their preferred language.

Dieffenbacher says it is also presenting concepts for production of new end products made from recycled materials.