British Victrex and Electroimpact cooperated to achieve a layup speed of 4000inch/min for thermoplastic unidirectional belts, which is suitable for manufacturing large aerospace structures.
Using thermoplastic composites to manufacture large structural components in the aerospace industry, the next decisive step has now been achieved. Using its improvements to the automatic fiber placement (AFP) process technology, Electroimpact, an experienced supplier of factory automation and mold solutions, is now able to increase the placement speed of the thermoplastic unidirectional (TP UDT) to 4000 inches/min.
In cooperation with the world's leading innovator of high-performance polymer solutions, the British company Victrex, relying on the company's unique performance Victrex AE 250 LMPAEK unidirectional belt to make this high speed possible.
At present, large-scale composite structures in the aviation field, such as wings and fuselages, are basically thermoset. The challenge of using thermoset composites is that they need to be carried out for a long time in an autoclave that is large enough to accommodate the large structure. Curing, therefore, the autoclave is a production bottleneck, and it needs to consume a lot of energy.
For the first time, the thermoplastic unidirectional tape has reached the layup speed of thermosetting
In addition, sustainability is an important driving force for the development of the aviation industry. OEMs and their first-tier suppliers not only hope to improve the fuel efficiency of aircraft, but also hope to improve the efficiency of the entire supply chain. The huge advantages of thermoplastic composites have been quite long. The time has been confirmed, and has triggered the increasing use of this material in the production of small parts. Not only that, thermoplastic composites can also be processed by OoA, and production processes have also been developed to take advantage of their high-speed production potential.
In addition, recyclability is also a major advantage of thermoplastic composites.
Related personnel explained: "The significance of using a variable spot size (VSS) laser to process a thermoplastic unidirectional tape at a layup speed of 4000 inch/min is that, as far as we know, this is the first time that a thermoplastic composite material has achieved Laying speed of thermoset composites, this advancement helps eliminate autoclave curing, providing important and new output advantages for thermoplastics."
By deploying a new laser heating system that can revolutionize heat treatment in the aviation industry, the existing AFP process technology has been improved.
The relevant person added: "We are very pleased to provide this new laser technology so that Victrex's high-performance LMPAEK composite material can be used in a wider range of fields to meet the unmet customer needs. I am sure, based on Victrex provides continuous and in-depth support at all stages of the project. In the next few years, the high-speed production and high-performance advantages of the advanced Victrex AE 250 unidirectional belt material will enable the production of large-scale aerospace thermoplastic structural components. "
To this end, Electroimpact has taken a step forward: on-site trial production was carried out with Victrex AE 250 unidirectional belts. A comparative test project using several different materials proved that Victrex LMPAEK unidirectional belts can provide the best performance for the production of non-porosity laminates, including the most uniform size and uniform fiber distribution in the resin . Therefore, after layup, high-quality parts can be produced without additional processing steps, eliminating the need for oven curing. It is worth mentioning that on-site manufacturing has always been considered the holy grail for the production of aerospace composite structures.
The focus of the cooperation between the two companies is to jointly provide an optimized AFP process. Compared with another polyketone UD tape used for similar purposes, this process provides impressive time and energy saving advantages for on-site manufacturing and non-autoclave (OoA) curing. The Victrex AE 250 unidirectional tape developed by Victrex is a new, high-performance thermoplastic composite prepreg tape, which has the typical mechanical, physical and chemical properties of the PAEK polymer family such as PEEK. .