Industrial composites for automotive applications
Forvia Faurecia, École Centrale de Nantes and the Centrale Nantes Foundation have signed an agreement establishing an international research chair on “Industrial Composites for Automotive Applications”. Signed for a five-year term, the agreement provides support for four PhD students and eight Master’s students.
Forvia Faurecia is contributing €1.8 million to the chair’s funding. Three of Forvia Faurecia’s four main business groups (Faurecia Automotive Seating, Faurecia Interior Systems and Faurecia Automotive Exteriors) are thus partnering with École Centrale de Nantes.
Bringing together Forvia Faurecia, the world’s 6th-largest automotive supplier, and Centrale Nantes, one of the leading engineering schools in France and Europe, this research chair aims to develop breakthrough technologies (particularly in lightweighting of parts) by fostering innovative research in composite materials, their integration into multi-material structures, and manufacturing processes for the automotive industry.
The chair, headed by Christophe Binetruy, focuses on two main themes:
- developing processing methods for continuous-fibre composites for high-volume automotive applications;
- developing design tools for continuous-fibre composites (in particular through computer-aided engineering and simulation).