Case Study -
ZSK's TFP technology at ESE Carbon

TFP - a benefiting step forward

Every wheel that ESE Carbon Company manufactures today is made 100% from TFP stitched carbon fibre. ESE originally manufactured with traditional carbon fibre fabrics before transitioning to the ZSK STICKMASCHINEN TFP technology.

Carlos Hermida is convinced that “for my application TFP is a perfect match - the more complex the design is from a layup and engineering perspective, the more substantial the benefits that TFP will allow you to materialize.”

ESE Carbon Company first established their partnership with ZSK STICKMASCHINEN by investing in a sample machine to better understand the capability of the TFP technology. This allowed ESE's team to have familiarity with the EPCwin digitizing software, along with understanding the benefits and limitations of the stitched TFP technology, prior to receiving their first production machine.

Facts

The manufacturing benefits found using the ZSK STICKMASCHINEN's technology are a 50% reduction of pieces that make up the wheel, 50% reduction in layup times, an improved layup quality, optimized carbon fibre orientation, a carbon fibre waste reduction and overall cost reduction. The carbon fibre waste was reduced from 50% with traditional carbon fibre fabrics to just 5% with TFP, and by consolidating the supply chain for carbon fibre, substantial savings on raw material were also achieved. 

Significant savings

One of the most significant cost savings arises from the layup improvements. The reduction of layup times not only reduces the labour cost of the part itself, but it makes the use of moulds more efficient, as reduced layup times allows for more parts per mould to be made each day. The number of moulds required is reduced and this has a huge impact on the overall investment costs per wheel design. A reduction in the number of carbon fibre plies needed for a design, as well as more control in how they are formed, brings considerable improvement in the quality of layups. Analytical testing and CT scans prove that it has helped ESE reduce resin rich areas and therefore improve mechanical properties of the wheels.