QSP®: How to Produce a Netshape Thermoplastic Composite Part in One Minute

C. Callens, F. Bordellier
CETIM, Nantes, France

Abstract:
The Quilted Stratum Process® (QSP®) is a revolutionary approach for high performance thermoplastic composites and multi material parts design and production. This global breakdown concept reaches the goal of combination of High Performance, Low Cost and Short Cycle Time simultaneously. This new QSP® line can produce complex multi-thickness, multi-material, and multi-orientation parts in a short cycle time (40 to 90sec), starting from raw material to final netshape part. With a budget around 5M€, all this process was developed with university and industrial partners to get a final result close to real needs of the industry. With 6 patents and a JEC award received in June 2015, the QSP® is 'ready to use' for the industry. It shows that we can now produce optimized thermoplastic composite parts, ready for assembly in a very short cycle time for high volume capacity, with quality repeatability and robustness at global cost efficiency.