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With China Plastic Machinery
With China Plastic Machinery
GMT is the abbreviation of glass fiber reinforced thermoplastics. GMT material is a new type of engineering plastic that can be widely used in various parts of automobile bodies. It can replace traditional metal parts, reduce weight and reduce costs. I believe that in the near future, it will bring a new revolution to the entire automobile industry.
GMT (Glass Mat reinforced Thermoplastics) is the abbreviation of glass fiber reinforced thermoplastics.
GMT is a composite material with thermoplastic resin as the matrix and glass fiber mat as the reinforcing skeleton. Generally, sheet semi-finished products can be produced and then directly processed into products of the required shape. The fiber can be chopped glass fiber or continuous glass fiber mat, and the thermoplastic resin can be general plastic, engineering plastic or high-performance plastic. The development of GMT is late, but it has developed rapidly. It has good mechanical properties, short molding cycle, low production cost, can mold larger and complex-shaped parts with good dimensional stability. It is possible to achieve a strength in the range of 50-300N/mm2 by using GMT pre-cut according to the required size. The molded GMT parts are almost isotropic and have good strength for all types of impacts. The final product has no welds and can be recycled, which makes it a great concern in the automotive industry. Now the European automotive industry is increasingly inclined to use GMT to produce front-end parts, seat shells, engine noise insulation covers, bumpers, dashboard brackets and other parts.
The application of GMT materials has the following advantages:
1. High specific strength; the strength of GMT is similar to that of hand-laid polyester fiberglass products, and its density is 1.01-1.19g/cm, which is smaller than that of thermosetting fiberglass (1.8-2.0g/cm), so it has a higher specific strength.
2. Lightweight and energy-saving; the weight of car doors made of GMT material can be reduced from 26Kg to 15Kg, and the back thickness can be reduced to increase the space of the car. The energy consumption is only 60-80% of steel products and 35-50% of aluminum products.
3. Compared with thermosetting SMC (sheet molding compound), it has the advantages of short molding cycle, good impact performance, recyclable utilization and long storage cycle.
4. Impact performance: GMT's ability to absorb impact is 2.5-3 times higher than SMC. Under the impact force, SMC, steel and aluminum will have dents or cracks, but GMT is safe and sound.
5. High rigidity (GMT contains GF fabric, which can maintain its shape even with a 10mph impact collision).
In addition to excellent physical/mechanical properties, as an assembly component, the one-piece molding feature of GMT material products determines its low system cost, which is also very conducive to cultivating a supplier team with professional, mass production and modular supply capabilities, and will greatly improve the management efficiency of the main engine factory for suppliers.
Application in the automotive industry
1 Front-end components
The amount of GMT used to make automotive front-end components in Europe accounts for about 28% of the total amount of automobiles. Golf A3, Polo AO3, Audi80 and small Audi AB all use GMT front-end components. The advantage of using GMT to make front-end components is that it can integrate functions such as headlights, fans and radiator seats, engine hood buckles and bumper fixing points, thereby replacing multiple metal parts. Compared with steel parts of the same strength, the weight can be reduced by 20%, and the production cost can be reduced by 10%. Compared with sheet molding compounds, GMT front-end components have advantages in assembly and shock resistance.
2 Seat shells
GMT seat shells account for 20% of GMT's European automotive use. This seat shell can be used in different colors, such as marble or wood grain.
3 Engine noise shield
GMT engine noise shields account for about 20% of GMT's total automotive use, mainly using the impact resistance and low temperature resistance of GMT materials.
4 Bumpers
In the United States, GMT has been widely used to mold automotive bumpers. Now it has developed into a one-way bumper with better performance composed of several layers of one-way GMT (GMT-VD). This bumper has good stiffness at low temperatures, excellent energy absorption and automatic fail-safe performance, light weight, can be molded according to material properties, and can meet the high stiffness and high strength requirements in the main stress direction.
5 Instrument panel bracket
GMT instrument panel bracket can integrate the functions of supporting instruments, airbags and heating and ventilation systems, providing a good application opportunity for GMT.
Application in other industries
In the construction industry, GMT can replace metal to make building formwork. This GMT formwork has the advantages of light weight, good peelability, integrated structure, and smooth surface of the parts. In the transportation industry, GMT sheets are used as linings on the bottom plate of containers to greatly reduce maintenance costs. GMT sheets can also be used as skins and high-strength foam as sandwich cores to replace hardwood and metal to make containers. Harbin FRP Research Institute has independently developed and applied all-composite insulating ladder accessories, distribution boxes, pump covers, chassis bottom plates for oil fields, and bearing end covers.
Another important feature of GMT materials is that they can be recycled. They have been tested in automobiles on a mass production scale and have achieved good results. The method is generally as follows: the recycled GMT parts are heated and then molded into the same type of parts or other types of parts of the same quality. They can be repeatedly molded twice without significantly reducing performance, but if they are reused more than 4 times, the performance will be greatly reduced.
The recycled GMT is crushed and made into GMT powder or pellets. This pellet is very similar to standard injection molding material and can be used as a raw material for injection molding machines or extruders. In the GMT manufacturing process, GMT is made by replacing part of PP and glass fiber mat with GMT powder or pellets. When the amount of recycled GMT material added is less than 10% (mass fraction), it will not affect the processing performance and static and dynamic properties of GMT. When the amount of recycled GMT is less than 30% (mass fraction), it will not affect its matrix properties.
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