Supercar Carbon Fiber HP-RTM in China

Illustration notice. Process illustrations are not verified photographs of this installation.

Project reference basis. Figures and configuration details are reported in the supplied project brief. They are reference values for the stated application, rather than verified acceptance results or a guarantee for another installation. Confirm the source records, material, tooling, operating schedule and test method when assessing a comparable project.

Project configuration and outcomes described in the supplied project brief.

A premier electric supercar division of a global automotive OEM partnered with Haifeng to establish an automated, fast-cycle composite manufacturing cell. The facility was commissioned to produce structural carbon fiber roof panels and monocoque passenger cell sections for a flagship performance vehicle.

Before this installation, the OEM relied on traditional prepreg autoclave consolidation. This manual process required lengthy vacuum debulking and thermal curing cycles lasting 4 to 6 hours per part, creating a severe manufacturing bottleneck that could not support scaled commercial delivery schedules while incurring unsustainable nitrogen heating utility bills.

Haifeng engineered a complete high-pressure liquid composite molding solution centered on the HF-HPRTM-250 injection system integrated with a 2,500-ton servo-hydraulic press. By transitioning to high-pressure compression resin transfer molding (HP-CRTM), the supplied brief reports part consolidation within a sub-3-minute complete molding cycle for the selected component configuration.

Equipment configuration reported in the supplied project brief.

Haifeng engineered and commissioned a turnkey HP-CRTM production cell with closed-loop process synchronization. Fast-curing epoxy resin and hardener are prepared in dual 80 L temperature-controlled vacuum tanks at 65°C to strip micro-air bubbles and maintain uniform process viscosity.

During cycle execution, an automated multi-axis robot loads the dry carbon fiber preform (multi-axial NCF carbon fabrics) into the heated steel tool mounted in the 2,500-ton press. The tool closes to a pre-calibrated micro-gap of 1.2 mm while vacuum pumps evacuate the cavity to 0.05 kPa absolute pressure.

The HF-HPRTM-250 metering unit delivers components through its die-mounted impingement head at 16.5 MPa, injecting 1,250 grams of mixed epoxy across the preform in just 8 seconds. Once the shot completes, the hydraulic cleanout piston closes flush with the tool wall, and the press immediately clamps with full 2,500-ton force to compress the resin through the laminate thickness. Following a 90-second in-mold isothermal cure at 135°C, the part is automatically demolded by robotic end-effectors.