Roth Composite Machinery has supplied a precisely tailored new production line for the hotmelt impregnation of composite prepregs to Krempel GmbH, based in Vaihingen/Enz, Germany.

The Rothabow 600 prepreg production line is characterised by a high level of automation and suitable for the processing of both glass and carbon fibres.

Krempel produces prepregs with different resin surface weights on the machine, for use, for example, in the automotive industry. For enhanced quality control, devices for measuring the resin surface weight and the prepreg surface weight are integrated.

The line is operating at a maximum application temperature of 300°C and has a drive design of 10 m/minute. Its application system is characterised by an almost backlash-free gap adjustment and two calenders and a pulling station are integrated.

 In the area of the heating elements, the material web can be lifted if production stops, to ensure the material is not heated too long during the process flow. The coating unit is based a special scraper system and a fibre spreading unit enables fibre guiding on two levels, with the rovings spread depending on requirements. The use of a double rewinder enables the cutting and rewinding of several tapes simultaneously.

Roth advised on the sequence of individual production steps, the material selection and processing and the automation level, as well as providing the commissioning and instructions on the operation of the machine.

“By using the new Roth line, we have achieved significant quality, in addition to optimised production speeds,” said Thomas Mozer, head of product engineering at Krempel.

www.roth-composite-machinery.com