The carbon fiber composite material has the merits of high strength, good design, good integration of components, good impact resistance and good corrosion resistance as auto parts.
In the global environment of energy saving and emission reduction, the use of carbon fiber composite materials to replace the existing metal structure, is to reduce vehicle exhaust pollution and achieve an effective way to save energy.
Based on the needs of the carbon fiber industry and the development of the automotive industry, the State Intellectual Property Office of the popularization of patent analysis projects Carbon Fiber Composites Research Group from the carbon fiber composite materials used in auto parts hub, mass production of BMW i3 and automotive carbon fiber composite materials global technology Depth analysis of automotive carbon fiber composite materials technology.
PART 1: CARBON FIBER COMPOSITE TECHNOLOGY FOR AUTOMOBILE PARTS AND WHEELS
The application of carbon fiber composite material in automobile wheel hub is the key technical field of industry concern. In recent years, the internationally renowned vehicle manufacturers Ford, BMW claims to have carbon fiber materials used in the production of high-end sports car, and gradually promote the carbon fiber composite wheels to low-end models on the application.
However, as can be seen in Figure 1 below, the application of carbon fiber composite materials hub late, not many applications, only 47 items.
Automotive lightweight, carbon fiber
Carbon fiber composite material applied to the hub of the global patent covers carbon fiber composite materials in the various parts of the application of the wheel, according to the specific parts of the application, divided into spokes, rims, spokes and rim connection (referred to as the connection), hub body, Technical branch.
From the patent applications, the largest proportion of patent applications is the rim, followed by spokes, hub body, connecting the central hole and the number of patent applications less.
Automotive lightweight, carbon fiber
Figure 3 shows the carbon fiber composite materials applied to the hub of the Chinese patent layout. It can be seen that the rim and spokes are the main technical areas for application layout.
Blue font represents the pending status of foreign applications to China. Red font represents valid foreign application in China. Black font represents the applicant's application in China.
It can be seen that all applications for foreign patents in China are mainly invention patents, and mainly focus on the structural improvement of rims and spokes, only one is effective at present and the rest are all pending. The Chinese applicants for the utility model.
Automotive lightweight, carbon fiber
PART 2: COMPOSITES WITH CARBON FIBER COMPOSITES FOR BICHI i3
BMW Group in 2009 began to choose to use carbon fiber composite materials to manufacture BMW i3. BMW i3 by Mitsubishi Rayon, SGL and BMW to complete the three co-operation. From Figure 4 below can be seen that the three companies in the technology chain in the complementary advantages for their cooperation laid the foundation.
As a supplier of carbon fiber, Mitsubishi Rayon pays more attention to the layout of the patent upstream of the industry chain. The topics covered include chemical raw materials for the manufacture of carbon fiber precursor, resin composition for making carbon fiber composite material, carbon fiber precursor, carbon fiber And its tow, carbon fiber fabric, composite material structure design, molding process and a small amount of auto parts.
SGL as a supplier of composite materials, chemical raw materials for the upstream industry chain is almost not involved in the application mainly concentrated in the carbon fiber composite materials, structural design, molding technology and automotive parts.
BMW as a vehicle manufacturer, the patent application is not just about the automotive parts, but also on the carbon fiber bundle, carbon fiber fabric applications. In addition, BMW has a large number of applications involving composite material connection method, the composite material quality testing methods, composite materials recovery and repair.
Automotive lightweight, carbon fiber
By combing the patents involved in each of the BMW i3 production processes, it was found that the product was protected by an important patent at each stage of production.
The production process of the BMW i3 can be further subdivided into the manufacture of carbon fiber strand, preoxidation and carbonization of carbon fiber precursor, manufacture of carbon fiber fabric, cutting of carbon fiber fabric, laying of carbon fiber fabric, preforming, preforming (RTM), life module assembly, life module and drive module integration, quality inspection, recycling 11 steps, key patents are listed in Table 1 below.
Automotive lightweight, carbon fiber
PART 3: GLOBAL COOPERATION OF CARBON FIBER COMPOSITES FOR AUTOMOBILE
Figure 5 shows the main applicant in the three technical branches of structural design, forming process and automotive components for automotive carbon fiber composite materials.
As can be seen from the figure, carbon fiber composite materials for automotive applications are mainly carbon fiber and composite materials suppliers (yellow in the figure), vehicle companies (green in the figure), auto parts suppliers (in the figure Blue).
Automotive lightweight, carbon fiber
Figure 6 shows the carbon fiber composite materials for automotive global patent applications for technical cooperation. Carbon fiber composite materials Automotive patent applications in the field of light a total of 1098 applications.
Automotive lightweight, carbon fiber
The size of the bubble in the figure indicates how much the applicant's application, the more connections the more partners. Different colors of bubbles on behalf of the enterprise in the automotive industry with different roles in the composite material.