Solvay, Penso collaborate on industrialized production of lightweight structures

Solvay team in front of composite body-in-white prototype

Solvay (Alpharetta, Ga., U.S.) and Penso (Coventry, U.K.) have announced the successful development of composite design, material and manufacturing technologies required to create a modular, multi-material body-in-white structure suited for large production volume.

The consortium was awarded a multi-million pound grant in 2017 by the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) for the Flexible Lightweight Architecture for Volume Applications (FLAVA) automotive project. In addition to Solvay and Penso, Mercedes-Benz Vans UK (Milton Keynes) also became a project partner.

Solvay Penso composite body-in-white prototype

According to the companies, the project, through the manufacture of composites-intensive vehicle prototypes, demonstrated the technical and commercial solutions required to meet emission legislation with design flexibility, structural integration, lightweighting, vehicle assembly and logistics simplification.

FLAVA contributed to establishing a composite supply chain able to offer manufacturing processes that meet automotive OEM quality, serial production rate and total cost of ownership requirements in standard OEM production facilities.

“Solvay, through FLAVA, was able to further demonstrate composite part manufacture process readiness for large-scale production by investing in R&D (product development and automation), industrializing our composite manufacture and contributing to establish a supply chain for end-customers. FLAVA is a stepping stone for Solvay on our industrialization roadmap,” says Gerald Perrin, automotive global growth director for Solvay Composite Materials Global Business Unit.（Source | Solvay）