Hydrogen-powered electric vehicles are on the rise. Electrification of powertrains, along with limitations in battery technology, give rise to hydrogen-powered, fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV). However, one of the challenges for FCEV is to efficiently and safely store hydrogen (H2) in the vehicle.
Hydrogen for FCEV is typically stored in type IV composite pressure vessels. The high operating pressure requires a significant amount of carbon fiber for the vessel. With up to 700 bar nominal pressure, one tank consumes up to 10 kg of carbon fiber for every 1 kg of hydrogen stored. With a typical tank size of 4-6 kg of hydrogen for passenger cars, a tank weights up to 40-60 kg. For larger tanks, the material economics only improve slightly.
Cevotec has developed a solution for this challenge.
Reinforcing a tank’s dome area with Fiber Patch Placement (FPP) yields up to 20% in material and cost savings – and shortens total manufacturing time by 20%. By using FPP dome reinforcements, manufacturers need less material in the subsequent filament winding process, which continues to be the key production process for those tanks. While wrapping endless fibers around the liner is best for the cylindrical part, filament winding at the domes means redundant material on the cylindrical part – which translates into excess weight and high cost of the final product.
Cevotec’s solution is to apply carbon fiber patches in the dome areas. The patches are designed to exactly cover the areas causing problems in filament winding. In a first step, Cevotec’s SAMBA FPP systems place the reinforcing fiber patches around the dome area directly on the liner. Then the patched liners are passed over to the filament winding process, which subsequently needs less material and production time for the dome areas.
Typically, the investment in FPP dome reinforcements starts paying off from the first day of production and amortized in less than 24 months of series production.
20% reduction in material
18% savings in total production cost
20% reduction in production time
20% production capacity increase
Liner + reinforcement patches
- Plastic liners are reinforced with Cevotec’s SAMBA production system – directly on the liner, fully automated, quality controlled
- One SAMBA production system can supply several filament winding stations
Reinforced liner + filament winding
- The reinforced liner is transferred to the filament winding process
- The winding process is adjusted to use less material in the dome areas, therefore saving material and production time
- Aditionally, your capacity for tanks increases, improving your ROI and production economics
- Step 1: ROI and suitability assessment
- Step 2: Joint application development
- Step 3: Customized lay-up equipment
Includes manufacturability assessment, unit cost and time analysis, benefits and ROI estimation. This service is complimentary for you.
>> How much does your application benefit from FPP?
Includes virtual studies, application and demonstrator development, equipment customization, and more.
>> How do you best develop & test your FPP application?
Includes SAMBA lay-up systems, ARTIST STUDIO software, customized patch grippers, quality control systems, and more.
>> Which system configuration is best for your application?
