FASTENING & JOINING | LIGHTWEIGHTING
to help inform the joining of
materials – What is claimed as a
“world first decision support tool”
guiding engineers when making
choices about joining materials.
Darren Hughes, Associate
Professor in Materials and
Manufacturing at WMG comments:
“WMG has a keen interest in high
volume joining technologies, and
the LightJoin project was a good
platform to expand this, providing
the freedom to trial and experiment
with OEMs. Having the WMG centre
of excellence for high volume joining
involved in this project allowed the
upskilling of our staff and encouraged
knowledge transfer directly into our
undergraduate and postgraduate
programmes as well as professional
training programmes at WMG.”
Donna Dykeman, Programme
Manager at Ansys Granta added:
“An important aspect of the LightJoin
project was that the supply chain for
polymer composites in the automotive
sector was represented (material
producers, design/testing/simulation
experts, Tier 1 suppliers, OEMs). This
variety highlighted what is critical for
decision-making in joint selection,
design and manufacturing to achieve
high volume targets.
“Ansys Granta, supported by
our partners, made significant
in-roads to producing a software
decision-support tool for selection
of joints which are multi-material,
multi-configuration, according to
automotive requirements.”
The LightJoin database includes
a selection tool, which responds to
a user’s specification around a set
of joint properties and fastening
mechanisms by presenting material
and joint data to show suitable options
when looking to join a composite with
a metal.
In order to produce a database
offering these joining solutions, the
expertise of individual consortium
members was leveraged. This
included Scott Bader’s experience in
joining multi materials with adhesives,
Stadco’s consideration of risks and
steps for applying large scale joining
and composites manufacture to
industry, and Gestamp’s development
of a demonstrator jig in partnership
with FAR-UK as they looked to expand
expertise from metals to composites
and understand the joining
WMG conducted a
detailed analysis of
joining techniques
using in excess of 1,000
individual test samples
and explored joint
performance, durability,
life-cycle and ease of
implications.
David Goodwin,
Engineering
Manager at FAR-UK
said: “We saw an
increasing customer need
manufacture.
to light-weight multi-material
structures. There was a short coming
in the solutions offered in the market
place. Also the project built upon our
expertise with analysis led design
of light-weight structures, so was a
perfect fit.”
As part of providing technical
advice and evaluating joining
technologies under rigorously
controlled conditions, WMG
conducted a detailed analysis of
joining techniques using in excess
of 1,000 individual test samples
and explored joint performance,
durability, life-cycle and ease of
manufacture. This generated test
results that would populate the
majority of the LightJoin database,
helping identify the most viable
lightweight composite joining options
for large industrial scale production.
Sullivan Smith, Automotive
Programme Manager at TWI
commented: “Our main goal through
LightJoin was to develop more
knowledge, which would in turn
enable us to offer more services
at TWI. We have half a century of
experience in composites but the
project has enabled us to transfer
knowledge from joining processes,
reflected through lab-based data
and performance results, to expand
our technology offering. We are
interested in doing more work with
WMG on this.
“As a result of the project we
have successfully won business in
the area of joining composites and
metals, and have learnt how to apply
these techniques in an economic and
reliable way for production. Based on
the significant return on investment
from this, we are now applying for
more government funding in this
area.”
Culminating in June 2019, the
project compared and tested joining
technologies including adhesives,
self-piercing rivets and blind
rivets. The LightJoin database and
joining selection tool provides a
robust source of data for use in the
medium/high volume automotive
manufacturing supply chain.
As part of the project, FAR-UK
developed the joining cell, which
with Gestamp’s contribution helped
to manufacture a chassis frame.
Based on FAR-UK’s Final Report
when producing the lightweight
chassis frame, the original steel
structure (3248g) was replaced with
a Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer
(composite) structure using guidance
from the LightJoin database, and saw
weight reductions of 50%.
David Goodwin, Engineering
Manager at FAR-UK added:
“LightJoin allowed us to develop and
demonstrate capability for designing
and manufacturing of prototype
multi-material structures. This has
improved our offering to customers
for light-weight, cost-effective
structures making use of fibre
reinforced composites, aluminium
and steel with a right material in the
right place philosophy.” !
20 WWW.EUREKAMAGAZINE.CO.UK | JUNE 2020
/WWW.EUREKAMAGAZINE.CO.UK