All research and development tasks in the area of high-performance composite fiber materials, particularly with carbon fibers and glass fibers are carried out in the competency field of Composites: Structures and Process Development (FVSV). It is the provider of services along the entire process chain from the calculation of operationally efficient composite fibers, the development of highly efficient manufacturing methods and, finally, to the realization of prototypes and the small series of different components. This competency provides basic contributions to the application of composite fiber materials in the aerospace, wind energy and automobile industries as well as in mechanical engineering and track vehicle construction. The main objective of the activities in this competency is to considerably speed up development processes ("time to market") with high-performance FEM simulations on the one hand and, on the other, the development of automated manufacturing methods suitable for series production. A fast and reliable series production method is a prerequisite for the success of new products on the market.

Up to now, the manufacture of composite materials has primarily been a manual, single-item production system. So in order to meet the demands of a growing market of operationally-efficient CFRP components, the focus is now on automated and continuous production processes. At reasonable costs, only these processes can meet the demands of the dynamic, growing markets of the aerospace and wind energy industries. The verification of efficient and reliable methods will lead to further, interesting applications of CFRP materials in the automobile and track vehicle industries and in mechanical engineering.

The competency's range of services:

• the development of continuous methods for the manufacture of CFRP components with complex geometries
• application of automated deforming processes for fiber-reinforced thermoplastics
• structural computation of high-performance components made of composite fiber materials with modern R&D methods
• contributions to the manufacture and assembly of large CFRP structures (e.g. in aircraft construction)
• process and component development with dynamic simulation computations
• prototype development and small-series manufacture of composite fiber components
  

Different manufacturing facilities are available at the Faserinstitut's Technikum at the University of Bremen that contain large pultrusion units as well as the deformation center for the processing of fiber-reinforced thermoplastics.