The first laminate made of Toray Advanced Composites (Morgan Hill, California, USA) LM-PAEK unidirectional (UD) tape for the MECATESTERS Clean Sky 2 project has been installed at ThermoPlastic Composite Research Center (TPRC, Enns, Netherlands) Hurd) carried out autoclave treatment. This is part of the 30-month project (JTI-CS2-2018-CFP08-LPA-02-25) in the Clean Sky 2 large passenger aircraft program, the first of many laminates that will be produced, welded and tested. Validation of induction and conduction welding of thermoplastic composite laminates used in industrial aircraft applications.
KVE Composites Group (The Hague, The Netherlands) and Rescoll (Pessac, France) were established in April 2019, and are collaborating with the MECATESTERS project leader GKN Fokker (Hoogeveen, The Netherlands) to deepen the understanding of the material's micromechanical properties. The welding interface of UD tape-based laminates is currently limited to carbon fiber-based laminates. In order to develop a coherent method, issues such as aging, repair, processing parameters, and durability need to be studied in more detail. This is a critical step in the widespread use of such technologies in the aerospace field.
The project will use the two most promising and mature thermoplastic welding methods identified in Clean Sky 2 as aviation carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites to study many aspects of thermoplastic connections: induction welding and conduction welding.
KVE Composites Group is a pioneer in induction welding technology and will continue to develop continuous welding for aerospace structures. GKN Fokker uses it commercially to produce Gulfstream G650 and Dassault 6X rudders and elevators, and Aviacomp uses it commercially to weld Airbus A220 fuel tank inspection panels.
GKN Fokker developed conductive welding for spot welding applications in the TAPAS-2 project. The main purpose is to evaluate and verify these two welding methods for typical fuselage thermoplastic parts based on UD carbon fiber / LM-PAEK tape, and to fully understand their micromechanical properties.
To achieve this goal, four key goals have been established, which will enable the entire MECATESTERS project to be achieved and achieved within the proposed 30 months:
· Evaluate the effect of surface conditions on the welding interface
A detailed inspection of different surface types will provide clear guidance on the production and maintenance of surface conditions.
· Check the effect of aging on the durability of UD carbon fiber / LM-PAEK parts
An aging assessment of the durability of UD carbon fiber / LM-PAEK parts will provide valuable information to establish recommended maintenance intervals, engineering tolerances and service life.
· Comparison of process windows for welding methods
Select and further study two welding methods in order to provide an industrially applicable high-performance and high-quality solution for the thermoplastic welding of UD carbon fiber / LM-PAEK parts.
· Perform mechanical tests to verify the performance of welded joints
The MECATESTERS project will analyze the microstructure behavior of welded thermoplastic components in detail to select and apply the most ideal connection technology.