Production process, digitalization technologies drive e-mobility solutions

Dieffenbacher (Eppingen, Germany) welcomes composites manufacturers who are eager to help their customers in the automotive, aerospace and sports and leisure industries seize e-mobility opportunities. The company’s manufacturing technologies and plants support the production of a variety of mobility solutions, ranging from automotive parts to emerging applications like transportation, passenger drones, electric surfboards and jet skis.

Examples of applications produced with Dieffenbacher equipment include battery housings, battery boxes and underbody covers for e-mobility applications such as drones and electric cars, and even bicycle components such as frames and rims. The processes on display will include sheet molding compound (SMC), glass mat thermoplastics (GMT) and direct long fiber thermoplastic molding (D-LFT), as well as the Dieffenbacher Tailored Blank Line, including tape laying and consolidation technologies. Dieffenbacher’s core competence, the hydraulic press, plays a major role in all these processes.

On March 6, at 4:30 p.m. in Hall 5, Dieffenbacher sales manager Raimund Grimm is presenting “Thermoset and Thermoplastic Technologies for EV Applications.” He will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of thermoset and thermoplastic materials and what an efficient and sustainable production process looks like.

Two recent projects that demonstrate Dieffenbacher’s approach are Teijin’s SMC plant in Milovice, Czech Republic — used to produce battery covers — and Rein4ced’s Tailored Blank Line in Leuven, Belgium, for the manufacture of carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic bicycle frames.

Dieffenbacher’s presence is rounded off by digitalization and sustainability solutions. The company’s digitalization platform, Evoris, uses artificial intelligence to make plants faster and more efficient. “Evoris gives us better insights into our production and better possibilities to influence it,” says Christoph Bless, head of operational maintenance and repair at Autoneum (Sevelen, Switzerland). Autoneum has used Evoris since 2022. “They [Dieffenbacher] offer everything from the platform to sensor technology and plant know-how to technologist knowledge for the entire production line.”

Companies interested in sustainability have several options from Dieffenbacher for various production processes. The Fiberpress hydraulic press in Teijin’s SMC line, for example, is equipped with variable-speed pump drives that minimize unnecessary energy consumption. The Dieffenbacher Fiberforge that is part of Rein4ced’s Tailored Blank Line helps the bicycle frame manufacturer use its raw materials as efficiently as possible. It can cut unidirectional tapes at any angle between -45° and 45° to produce a contour with minimum waste.

Moreover, Dieffenbacher’s adaptive accumulator management of the hydraulic drive system optimizes the energy consumption of hydraulic press systems by automatically determining during the first press strokes the exact energy required for forming. For subsequent production cycles, the hydraulic drive accumulator is charged only to the corresponding required pressure level.

Visit Dieffenbacher at Booth L115 in Hall 5.