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Translating design to production capability

Early in the program, the ACR team tasked Prefix Corp. (Rochester Hills, Mich.), the Tier 1 supplier, and Plasan Carbon Composites (Bennington, Vt.), the component manufacturer, with finding effective solutions.

To build the structurally and aesthetically demanding wing, Plasan worked with Akzo Nobel (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) on paint and material development. Together, the supply team produced a family of low-VOC/fast-cure epoxy resins formulated to ensure long-term high visual impact by means of an integrated, patented UV stabilizer/carrier as well as a UV-resistant clearcoat that met Chrysler’s objectives. The UV package is considered among the most important program breakthroughs. Plasan’s epoxy cure averages just 10 minutes per part in the autoclave cure cycle.

Advanced Composites Group (ACG, Heanor, Derbyshire, U.K.) provided the exposed-weave prepreg for the clearcoated wings. Engineered Textile Solutions (ETS, Darien, Conn.) supplied unidirectional carbon prepregs for the painted wings, which formed a specialized Class A outer layer meant to resolve the team’s previous problems with fiber read-through. High-tensile-strength woven fabrics from Hankuk Fiber Co. Ltd. (Miryang Kyungnam, South Korea) were used in the underlayers of both wing styles to resist high downforce loads at top speeds. The high strength and bending stiffness of the CFRP material eliminates the need for support ribs, another source of potential read-through.

Considered to be the first mass-produced CFRP wing in the auto industry, the two-piece, hollow bonded structure is produced by hand layup and vacuum bag/autoclave cure and finished with inner end plugs molded of urethane by Prefix Corp. A layup pattern of 0/90/0/90 is used to produce each half shell of the wing. Hardware is inserted during layup. Kits are cut using an automated Eastman Machine (Buffalo, N.Y.) cutting table. A high-temperature, fast-cure bonding adhesive developed by Ashland Inc. (Dublin, Ohio.) is used to join both wing sections and the end plugs. The total wing production time is one hour.