Motivation
Carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) show a high potential for lightweight design. Compared to other materials such as metals or non-reinforced plastics and adjusted for its density, CFRP is capable of bearing enormous tensile loads. These density specific advantages can however best be harnessed when the fibers are oriented along load paths. A prerequisite for this is load path optimized part design. Based on the findings of the project MAI Skelett, the project MAI Multiskelett aims for the advancement of the skeleton construction with CFRP. Especially for large structural components, in which several principal load paths cross each other (e.g. front and rear of the side frame of an automotive passenger cabin), process-based solutions for the crossing of beams and profiles as well as for load introduction areas should be developed. The goal was to be able to apply a skeleton structure also for complexely loaded components. For this, a process chain had to be developed that reaches from part construction to manufacturing and that enables a cost-efficient production of CFRP components in the long term.

Acknowledgement
The chair thankfully acknowledges the funding of the project “Multiaxial beanspruchtes Integralbauteil im Kunststoffspritzguss mit lastpfadgerechten, pultrudierten, endlosfaserverstärkten Carbonfaserbündeln in Skelettbauweise – MAI Multiskelett” provided by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research under the leading-edge cluster MAI Carbon (funding code: 03MAI37D).