Abstract

The European Commission has a strong compromise in matter of developing eco-friendly designs for airborne systems to reduce both manufacturing and in-service contamination related to those elements. One of the main approaches in this sense is to substitute metal parts by stiff, light-weight, multifunctional and recyclable polymer-based compounds which allow eliminating hazardous surface treatments and also permit reusing the materials at the end of life of the components.

In this framework, ECOFUNEL project was launched by Liebherr Aerospace SAS with the consortium formed by FIDAMC, CTAG and CANOE, and with the financial support of the European Commission under the Clean Sky 2 initiative. The work aims to giving alternatives to current metal valve bodies of air conditioning systems for aircraft, by investigating the use of thermoplastic while addressing the challenge of keeping sufficient electrical conductivity and mechanical properties of the part.

The research line put the focus on the development of new functionalized material formulations based on high performance injection molding thermoplastic compounds with enhanced electrical feature. New formulations are designed, produced and studied systematically within ECOFUNEL and a final prototype element will be created employing the ad-hoc own-designed materials.