Contact: Christian Brauner
Tel: +49-42121858703
Email brauner@Faserinstitut.de
Web: www.faserinstitut.de

Faserinstitut Bremen e.V. (FIBRE) is active in the development, processing and testing of fibres and fibre reinforced composites since 1969. Qualified testing of natural fibres like cotton and wool has been the main subject in the early years of the institute. This knowledge has been increased by the development of testing machines for textiles, by the examination of the process chain by using hemp and flax fibres for natural fibre composites and in the last five years by the development of new carbon fibres, structure and process development of carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP). Today the institute works successfully together with national and international research partners and industry partners in the field of carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP), often for applications in the aircraft industry. Main topics are the development of automated, economic and robust manufacturing technologies, simulation of material behaviour (i.e. drapeability, shockwaves and curing-cycles) as well as characterisation of new materials.

The institute employs more than 35 highly-qualified people incl. 19 engineers and scientists. The modern laboratories at the institute for fibre and composite testing are certified according to ISO 17025. The production facilities are equipped with modern manufacturing machines such like a pultrusion line for profiles and stiffeners, forming presses for thermoplastic CFRP-forming and an injection moulding machine for small parts with short fibre reinforcement. One main focus of the research work is the development of automatic or continuous manufacturing processes for complex formed CFRP components (e.g. spherical or curved profiles, thermoformed 3- dimensional parts), which will be desired for current and future CFRP fuselage projects in numbers of thousands per year. The work in these fields at the Faserinstitut Bremen is embedded in different regional (State of Bremen), national (German Luftfahrtforschungsprogramm III and IV) or EU funded cooperation projects. Other actual projects deal with automated quality-control within the CFRP manufacturing using image analysis systems, optimisation of autoclave cycles and the usage of sandwich parts in vertical tail planes.