Thermoplastic Sandwich Moulding Technology (TSM) - Fully automated production of continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic sandwich structures in large-scale production

Sandwich composites made from continuous fiber-reinforced plastic cover layers offer optimum lightweight performance and the associated material efficiency when implementing large-area structural components. Thermoplastic Sandwich Moulding Technology (TSM) is a technology developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS, which is based on a novel thermoforming process and was specifically designed for the fully automated production of continuous fiber-reinforced sandwich components with a thermoplastic matrix in large series.

The advantages of Thermoplastic Sandwich Moulding Technology (TSM) at a glance:

• Fully automated production of complex structural components in sandwich construction  
• Full exploitation of the lightweight construction potential of continuous fiber-reinforced sandwich composites with honeycomb cores
• Suitability for mass production through the manufacture of ready-to-use sandwich components in cycle times of less than one minute
• Sustainably recyclable sandwich components thanks to thermoplastic matrix systems

The implementation of Thermoplastic Sandwich Moulding Technology (TSM) is based on the many years of experience of the Fraunhofer IMWS in the development of stress-optimized sandwich structures, numerically supported simulation for design-optimized structure and component design as well as process and tool development on a pilot scale. The research work is supported by systematic mechanical and process-specific characteristic value determination as well as component load tests with individual test setups in close cooperation with partners from industry.