Achieving lightweight construction through only material substitution does not realize the full potential of producing a lightweight material, hence, it is no longer sufficient. Weight-saving goals are best achieved through additional function integration. In order to implement this premise for mass production, a manufacturing process for joining and forming hybrid laminates using a new tool concept is presented. All materials used are widely producible and processable. The manufactured cover of an automotive center console serves to demonstrate a human interface device with impact detection and action execution. This is only possible through a machine learning system, which is implemented on a small—and thus space- and energy-saving—embedded system. The measurement results confirm the objective and show that localization was sufficiently accurate.

This work investigates a new generation structural health monitoring (SHM) system for fibre metal laminates (FML) based on an embedded thermoplastic film with compounded piezoceramics, termed piezo-active fibre metal laminate (PFML). The PFML is manufactured using near-series processes and its potential as a passive SHM system is being investigated. A commercial Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) sensor film is used for comparative evaluation of the sensor signals. Furthermore, thermoset and thermoplastic-based FML are equipped with the sensor films and evaluated. For this purpose, static and dynamic three-point bending tests are carried out and the data are recorded. The data obtained from the sensors and the testing machine are compared with the type and time of damage by means of intelligent signal processing. By using a smart sensor system, further investigations are planned which the differentiation between various failure modes, e.g., delamination or fibre breakage.

In this study, the Ti-6Al-4V powder material for additive manufacturing was mixed with amorphous carbon and processed by powder bed fusion using a laser beam. The specimens were subjected to mechanical and microstructural analyses to investigate the impact of the organic constituent that may become introduced unintentionally as an impurity along the powder handling chain. It is documented that hardness and tensile strength increase with increasing carbon content up to 0.2 wt.%. Above this carbon concentration, extensive crack formation in the samples prevents successful procession.

This study quantifies the mechanical degradation caused by locally introduced rubber-glove contamination in stress-relieved PBF-LB/M Ti-6Al-4V. Rubber-glove fragments were inserted into defined build layers of standardized tensile specimens and into highly loaded transition regions of a topology-optimized bracket demonstrator. Twelve uncontaminated and twelve contaminated tensile specimens and nine brackets per condition were evaluated. The contaminated tensile specimens exhibited a mean ultimate strength of approx. 860 MPa compared with approx. 1200 MPa for the reference condition, corresponding to a reduction of approx. 28%. Mean elongation at break decreased from approx. 13.4% to 0.6%, representing a reduction of approx. 95%. Fracture preferentially occurred at the contamination insertion region and was associated with planar fracture features and retained spherical powder particles. The results support a predominantly defect-controlled degradation mechanism associated with locally disturbed consolidation.