According to the Dutch Aerospace Center, the aircraft skin is the largest single thermoplastic component known in the world, measuring 8.5 meters in length
The Royal Netherlands NLR-Netherlands Aerospace Center produced the lower half of the fuselage skin, which is 8.5 meters long and 4 meters in diameter. This monolithic part is part of the Multi-Function Airframe Demonstrator (MFFD) under the Clean Sky 2 project. According to the center's researchers, this is the largest single thermoplastic part known to date.
This research result was obtained in a project jointly carried out by Royal NLR and its partners GKN Fokker (lead), Delft University of Technology and Diehl in Germany. The multifunctional airframe demonstrator will be used to clarify the extent to which carbon fiber reinforced plastics (mainly thermoplastic) contribute to the realization of the next generation of aircraft fleets. These parts must provide the same strength and durability as steel and aluminum parts. At the same time, as a whole, these components should require less time for maintenance and production, and will significantly reduce the total weight of the aircraft.
"One of the real improvements provided by thermoplastics is that, unlike thermoset materials, this material can be heated and reheated multiple times during the manufacturing and assembly process to ensure uniformity and adhesion. One of our goals is to show how Combining different processes to build structural and non-structural components to achieve full integration. To this end, we set out to build the lower half of the entire aircraft fuselage, not only to have an in-depth understanding of the manufacturability of the aircraft skin, but also It is necessary to understand the stiffeners under the skin and other structural parts, such as floor beams, as well as the substructures of the engine room, system and even cargo doors." The relevant personnel said so.
Based on the size of the final skin, the cooperative unit produced two separate machine segments. After completing the second 90-degree section of the lower fuselage skin, the next step is to merge the two sections of the lower fuselage skin and connect them into a 180-degree fuselage skin section. This requires a very large autoclave that can install and heat oversized parts at the same time and connect these pieces together. Since there is no such autoclave in the Netherlands, these two pieces were taken to Germany for further completion.