Land vehicles, modular systems for forming monocoques of land vehicles, and methods of forming monocoques of land vehicles using modular systems are disclosed herein. In certain embodiments, the land vehicles are provided as delivery vehicles and/or utility vehicles. A land vehicle includes a monocoque supporting a plurality of wheels to permit movement of the vehicle relative to an underlying surface in use of the land vehicle.

A molding method and a molding system for improving a molding speed of a resin molded member. In the method, firstly a thermoplastic resin composite material is filled in a metal mold (i.e., at time T0), and subsequently a mold-clamping process gets started. As the mold-clamping process progresses, a first decompression circuit starts to decompress an inside of a cavity when the cavity is closed by a sealing member provided on the metal mold. Then, as the mold-clamping process further progresses, the thermoplastic resin composite material thus filled in the metal mold contacts an upper mold of the metal mold (i.e., at time T2). After that, a second decompression circuit starts to decompress the inside of the cavity, thereby to complete the mold-clamping process (i.e., at time T3).

The method includes placing a block-shaped second resin on a backside of a composite sheet within outer edges, the composite sheet being made up of a plurality of stacked fiber sheets impregnated with a first resin and pressing the composite sheet and the second resin by a heated mold, to produce a resin molded article having the composite sheet embedded in a part of a surface of a resin layer of the second resin that extends to sides of the composite sheet. The composite sheet is formed such that a first fiber sheet of the plurality of fiber sheets positioned closest to a front side of the composite sheet is larger than other fiber sheets and covers the other fiber sheets entirely from the front side, when placed inside the mold.

A three-dimensional vacuum thermal insulation element having a compressed three-dimensional porous structure and a shell closed in an airtight manner. The shell includes a thermoformable barrier wall and encloses the porous structure arranged between two major surfaces of said barrier wall. The porous structure has a pressure of between less than 105 Pa and more than 10-2 Pa at ambient external temperature and pressure. The barrier wall is thermoformed at the site of said two major surfaces, between which the porous structure has a curved shape and/or reliefs and/or depressions.

A method of forming a fibre article, comprising: providing a former having a contoured forming surface; locating a fibre preform between a first diaphragm and a second diaphragm, the second diaphragm being offset from the forming surface; drawing a vacuum between the first and second diaphragms so as to hold the preform captive between the diaphragms; displacing the diaphragms relative to the former so as to bring a part of the second diaphragm adjoining the preform into partial conformity with the former; drawing a vacuum between the second diaphragm and the former so as to increase the conformity between the said part of the second diaphragm and the former; and setting the preform in its configuration

A method includes molding an outer impact beam made of carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) and separately molding an inner impact beam made of CFRP. The outer impact beam and the inner impact beam are coupled to each other to form an impact beam and the impact beam is coupled to an inner panel of a vehicle door.

A method of producing a fiber-reinforced resin by press-molding a prepreg preform contains a reinforcing fiber and a thermosetting resin, the method including (a) a preform production step of producing a preform; (b) a placement and preheating step of placing the preform in a mold and preheating the preform; (c) a pressing step of changing the preform into a product shape; and (d) a curing step of curing the preform while pressurizing the preform, wherein, at start of the pressing step (c), a degree of cure e of the thermosetting resin in a specific part of the preform is higher than a degree of cure i of the thermosetting resin in a region other than the specific part of the preform.

A manufacturing process for an active grille shutter arrangement including in-mold assembly of an active aero hinge modular frame that allows for the joining of multiple components that are to be assembled directly out of the molding process tooling. These components could be the vane end pivots, vane end stops, drive linkages, frame end stops, etc. Final assembly of the system is facilitated by geometrical considerations and molding material considerations in the in-mold assembly (IMA) design.

A device for producing a pultruded article is provided with: a mold in which an intermediate molded article comprising reinforcing fibers impregnated with a thermosetting resin is heated and hardened; and a pultrusion device that causes a pultruded article generated by heating and hardening the intermediate molded article in the mold to be pultruded from the mold. The mold comprises a pressing member that is elastically deformable and that presses the intermediate molded article.

A fiber-reinforced resin component comprises a first part having a plurality of first fiber layers impregnated in a matrix resin and a second part having a plurality of second fiber layers impregnated in the matrix resin. The second part is bonded to the first part via an adhesive layer. The fiber-reinforced resin component further comprises a plurality of connecting fibers that connect the first part and the second part. One end portion of the connecting fibers is sandwiched between the first fiber layers, and the other end portion of the connecting fibers is sandwiched between the second fiber layers.