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CFRTP is Able to Transition Carbon Fiber from Industrial to High-End Consumer Applications

The word “premium’ continues to define new markets for consumer brands in everything from cars to appliances. It’s a term that is also heavily reliant on materials to bring these sensory and performance stories to life.

Haier, a world-leading brand of major household appliances, has launched a state-of-the-art air conditioner under its high-end Casarte brand, which utilizes novel continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites (CFRTPs) from Covestro. Providing a new aesthetic and advanced properties such as lightweight, and strength, the product continues the advancement of carbon fiber in its move from industrial and aerospace applications into high-end consumer facing products, borrowing properties from these industries to create and reinforce the notion of ‘premium’ for consumers.

A Plastic with a Metallic Effect

CFRTP composites are made from ultrathin, unidirectional (UD) carbon fibre tapes that are laminated together at specific angles to form sheets that can be customized to specific performance criteria. Think of it as a ply structure with a resulting thin, stiff sandwich providing lightweight yet very strong sheets with the processing flexiblity of a thermoplastic material. It deviates from traditional herringbone carbon fiber patterns with its unidirectional carbon surface pattern, lending the air conditioner a luxurious metallic effect with a totally new visual language for the material. On another sensory note it also produces the sound of metal rather than plastic when it is knocked.

"Not only does this mark a pivotal step into consumer home appliances for CFRTP composites, but it brings a new premium material and exciting new design opportunities within the reach of designers,” says David Hartmann, one of the co-CEOs of Covestro CFRTP, together with Michael Schmidt.

A New Take on Premium

Traditionally composites have been known to be prohibitively costly and often difficult to work with. CFRTP changes all of this, offering a modern, cost effective and easy-to-form thermoplastic composite material that opens the path to completely new applications and user experiences.

For the Casarte design team, it means that for the first time they were able to specify a high-performance composite material with unique aesthetics in their range of premium air conditioners. “Up until now, we have been quite limited in terms of material selection, typically relying on metal to provide the performance and aesthetics that we require,” says Shao Qingru, one of the CMF designers in the Casarte design team.

In describing the depth and richness that Qingru sees in the surface texture of Covestro CFRTP, she points at a very tangible benefit of the material. “CFRTP is a very attractive material for us in that it has a natural, unidirectional surface pattern right from the start, unlike metals such as aluminum that requires some combination of finishing processes like sandblasting, brushing and anodizing before it is ready to go into the product. For CFRTP, the finish is all natural and has a beauty to itself.”

“Based on thermoplastics, CFRTP composites can be shaped with existing thermoforming tools at high yield rates and short cycle times. They are compatible with a wide range of coatings and decoration processes for designing unique surfaces, logos and other signature details. Laser-etched patterns transfer easily from steel molds,” says Michael Schmidt.

Smart Air conditioning system

The Casarte air conditioner features intelligent recognition and air zoning. It comes with sensors that can detect the location of people in a room and perceive temperatures in humans so it can intelligently control the airflow and temperature in different zones based on the needs of people.

About Covestro:

With 2017 sales of EUR 14.1 billion, Covestro is among the world’s largest polymer companies. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. The main segments served are the automotive, construction, wood processing and furniture, and electrical and electronics industries. Other sectors include sports and leisure, cosmetics, health and the chemical industry itself. Covestro has 30 production sites worldwide and employs approximately 16,200 people at the end of 2017.

Find more information at www.covestro.com and www.cfrtp.covestro.com.

Follow Covestro on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CovestroGroup