Abstract

Commercial aviation is evolving towards high production rates in an increasingly competitive environment. The structures of composite materials offer the best performance in weight but, in this scenario, they have to do it with robust industrial processes and competitive costs.

With this objective and thanks to the contribution of the Spanish goverment trough CDTI, a very effective collaboration was organized between Airbus, pushed by the initiative of the spanish comercial part, FIDAMC, the Technology center linked to Airbus in Spain, MTorres, a recognized supplier of composite industrial equipment and Hexcel, one of the lead suppliers of high performance composite materials. The Project, known as HDPREG, has allowed, trough a complete test pyramid, the development of a material, a new automatic lamination head and a manufacturing process, all adapted for the production of large lifting surface parts for aircraft use and compatible with the mentioned requirements.

As a final exercise, beyond the scope of the project, FIDAMC, MTORRES and HEXCEL, funded the manufacture of an 18 m real-scale component, demonstrating the very high lamination productivity, as well as the feasibility of the application of the new material and the innovative manufacturing processes to meet the demands in terms of cost, weight, and industrial robustness.