Important points for the companies which are considering to entry the FRP industries
The topic today is " The important points for the companies which are considering to entry the FRP industries " .
FRP is one of the expanding and expected industries because it is considered to have the potential to create the new manufacturing phase.
This trend was going more than 20 years ago and this led to the application to the commercial aircrafts. By contrast, the automobiles or construction buildings are currently the target for FRP application.
The contacts to me from the companies which are now considering to entry FRP industries is increasing recently.
I try to mention two important points for them.
The important points for the companies which are considering FRP industry entry are;
1. The main business axis shall be based on the current technological advantage.
2. The prospective to expand their business in FRP industries as much as they can.
The detail comments will be shown below respectively.
1. The main business axis shall be based on the current technological advantage.
The question which I will ask to the company in the first meeting is;
" What is your company's technological advantage in the current business? "
The reason of asking it is very simple.
It is not reasonable only to catch up the trend in the FRP industries because these technologies are not enough for the entry companies to show their advantage in the area. The starting line shall be gone forward as much as possible, and their current technological advantage has an big effect on it.
But the companies replied to my question above as;
" We don't have any specific technology even in the current business area."
But the standard technology in an industry is often NOT the standard in FRP industry. This reality has the potential to give the new entry company the breakthrough.
The very important point in FRP industry is;
" How to get the advantage giving the additional values to the products"
This concept shall be the key strategy.
The manufacturing business, based on the mass production and save costs, shall not be proper to the FRPs at this moment.
2. The prospective to expand their business in FRP industries as much as they can.
FRPs are very unique materials which have the strong connection among design, material, manufacturing, analysis and inspection.
I would like to introduce an example.
A company is trying to entry the FRP manufacturing area.
They may focus on the topic like;
" How to shorten the molding time"
I shall say the consideration above is not enough. The points below shall be considered at least if a company is trying to enter the field.
– FRP material cutting
– Material lay up
– De-molding and mold cleaning
– Trimming after molding
– Mold die parting line design
– Bagging and sealing material consideration
– NDI and dimensional inspection
Actually the points above is only directly related to "Molding". FRP material affects the its molding process actually because the FRP material properties like resin flow, viscosity and fiber configuration have the impact on the molding process parameters; heating/cooling program, pressure program, and so on.
If they try to mold FRTP ( fiber reinforced thermoplastics ). The molding process of cooling process in addition to heat and press shall be considered and designed. The storage condition shall be carefully controlled if they try to use thermosetting matrix resin system FRPs.
If they apply the RTM technology, they need to pay their attention to the dry fiber cutting and preforming. BMC or SMS with short fibers make them consider the injection or transfer molding, but weld line and injection position and number shall be thought.
The examples indicate that the FRP material configuration affects its molding process very much , and new entry companies shall be expand their technology up to the FRP material design as much as they can.
I hope this column would help you considering your strategy.
