DESC0025116

Lightweighting through the integration of composite vehicle structures represents a significant opportunity for energy savings on a life cycle basis. The multiphase nature of a composite also provides the opportunity to integrate secondary materials which may be used to provide additional functionality to the composite. Multifunctional materials are integrated material systems that serve multiple roles such as structural load bearing, energy absorption, thermal management, sensing, power generation, etc. The advancement of this field has been rapid due to the significant safety and performance benefits that can be achieved when using this class of materials. With the Vehicle Technologies Office targeting a 25% glider weight reduction at less than $5/lb-saved by 2030, innovative multifunctional materials that achieve dual use are required to capitalize on higher cost carbon fiber reinforcement. Over the past decade, automotive composites have focused on sheet molding compound (SMC), which enables high-volume manufacturing, but is produced with low performance polymers that are susceptible to combustion which poses challenges for use in electric vehicles. While there are many approaches to affect flammability, the use of a high-volume fraction of additives, especially inorganic salts, results in deterioration of the materialĺs strength and produces unacceptable increases in density, whereas brominated polymers have been banned in Europe with the US likely to follow. The limitations of current FST rated resins and low cycle time thermosets provides a significant commercial opportunity for Trimer. Trimer has developed a novel resin system that offers aerospace mechanical properties with the neat resin greatly exceeding the strength of current SMCs with 30% glass fiber reinforcement, FST performance exceeding phenolics, cycle times as low as 30 seconds and thermal stability approaching polyimides. While Trimerĺs resin offers an unprecedent combination of properties, it is currently a low viscosity infusion resin that exhibits high reactivity and therefore not compatible with the widely used SMC manufacturing process that requires latent resins (approximately 40 days) with a viscosity of 10-50 million cP. While SMCs do not obtain the strength of continuous fiber reinforcements, they provide the least barriers to commercialization since manufacturers can used existing tooling and manufacturing processes. This SBIR will seek to develop the technology required to achieve both the latency and viscosity required for SMC processing. The program will further integrate conductive fillers into the molding compound to attain EMI shielding which is required for future electric and autonomous vehicles. The proposed SBIR will bring Trimerĺs resin technology to the massive SMC market and provide FST rated composites with multifunctional properties for integration into the rapidly growing composite battery enclosure market. The automotive composites market was valued at USD 27.12 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 56.46 billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of over 13% during the forecast period 2022 - 2027. The DOE projects that the use of lightweight components and high efficiency engines in only one quarter of the U.S. fleet could save more than 5 billion gallons of fuel annually by 2030. This translates to reduction of ~100 billion pounds of CO2 emissions annually and would further contribute to reducing N2O emissions therefore providing significant impact on the public. Lightweighting of vehicle structures represents a significant commercial market and opportunity for energy savings, however traditional composites manufacturing technologies cannot achieve both high volume production and significant weight savings. The automotive industry requires new high strength polymers that can effectively capitalize upon the reinforcement potential of carbon fiber without added cost. Ultimately, Trimerĺs novel polymer provides a combination of properties not found in state-of-the-art resins while also providing reduced raw material and manufacturing costs therefore creating significant commercialization potential