French engineering giant Plastivaloire has teamed up with mould technology innovator Roctool to produce thermoplastic composite parts for the aerospace and automotive markets.
Roctool
Process development and tooling at the Plastivaloire, Langeais test centre
Plastivaloire has been using Roctool technology for the past five years in successful production. In automotive, the collaboration has led to major manufacturers producing plastic injected, decorative interior car parts, such as various 'high gloss' bezels which can be found in Peugeot 208.
“Our aim is to turn to technologies that allow us to significantly reduce the cycle times in the production of composite parts while mastering the quality and the production costs, for structural parts as well as decorative parts.” said Dominique Manceau, Director of Innovation, Plastivaloire Group.
Today, Plastivaloire has more than a dozen Roctool systems in production and recently acquired the latest Roctool system which heats many zones in the mould. Plastivaloire also uses Roctool technology at its innovative platform in Langeais, France, launched in January 2011, dedicated to the development of new applications.
"With Plastivaloire, we naturally started with plastic injection to deal with the problems associated with surface appearance on the parts. It is therefore obvious that we would continue with PVL in the composite market where there is a large potential, predominantly in automotive where lightweight needs are in high demand, along with the use of high performance materials being moulded at very high temperatures," added Mathieu Boulanger, Roctool CEO.
