AVK Expert Task Force

An expert task force managed by IVW and funded by industrial partners works on the efficient, robust, and uniform characterization of continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastics and their implementation into standards and material databases.

Continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastics (cFRTP) are characterized by their enormous lightweight potential and are predestined for large-scale series (e.g. in the automobile industry) because of their material properties. However, the frequent lack of fully comparable and efficiently calculated material properties are an obstacle for the application of cFRTP in the industry. Against this background, the AVK expert task force “continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastics” is developing a standardization strategy for cFRTP (organo sheets and tapes) under the direction of IVW, which – since its foundation in June 2015 – is focusing on basic parameters for databases. So far, a newly developed tensile specimen geometry
as well as a complete test plan are emerged from this strategy. The test plan consistently defines the minimal set of necessary material properties, test conditions and test methods. Thermoplastic continuous fiber reinforced ultra-high-performance semi-finished products (tapes) offer a high individual design potential using innovative production processing. Combining tapes with economic short and long glass fiber reinforced grades and thermoplastic continuous fiber reinforced semi-finished sheets (organo sheets) provides more possibilities of function integration and a higher lightweight potential compared to the tailored blank technology. The task force focused on the measurement of characteristic properties of tapes in 2021. In particular, the measurement of the extreme tensile strength in fiber direction, which is suitable for semi-finished products, was verified by using a ribbon test fixture developed for tapes. This ribbon test method for tapes is going to be brought into an international standard in the coming years.

This expert task force was initiated under the umbrella of AVK by the following companies:

• Arkema
• Covestro
• DSM
• Dupont
• Evonik
• Lanxess/Bond Laminates
• Mitsui
• Chemicals
• Sabic
• Solvay

Based on its experience and skills, IVW was selected by these companies to lead the task force to assemble the scientific questions and to find solutions for a transparent and effective standardization. The results are closely discussed with an OEM committee (BMW, Daimler, Ford, Opel/PSA,VW).