As part of this agreement, Oerlikon AM is acquiring its fourth 3D Systems DMP Factory 500 system which will be part of the manufacturing workflow in its North Carolina facility. Photo Credit: 3D Systems 

3D Systems and Oerlikon AM have entered into a partnership agreement in an effort further scale metal additive manufacturing (AM). Combining both organizations’ process and applications expertise with 3D Systems’ Direct Metal Printing platform and Oerlikon AM’s surface engineering capabilities is said to enable a faster path to market for applications in high-criticality industries such as semiconductor and aerospace.

As part of this agreement, Oerlikon AM is acquiring its fourth 3D Systems DMP Factory 500 system, the first Oerlikon AM is adding in the U.S., to be part of the manufacturing workflow in its North Carolina facility. This will help expand Oerlikon’s end-to-end supply chain solution for high-precision, complex aluminum components for the U.S. market.

3D Systems’ Application Innovation Group (AIG) collaborated with Oerlikon AM’s Application Engineering to develop this solution. Both teams possess expertise not only in AM but in high-value applications across a variety of industries. Their combined experience with the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) process and material and process qualification can be invaluable to the production of high-criticality parts with lower life cycle costs.

The 3D Systems direct metal printing (DMP) technology and Oerlikon’s AM production and surface engineering capabilities can result in a validated, certified production process for Oerlikon’s customers. This workflow includes the DMP Factory 500, a platform featuring a vacuum chamber to ensure the lowest O2 content, and a 3-laser configuration for the production of seamless large parts as large as 500 mm × 500 mm x 500mm. This results in a high surface quality for metal 3D printed parts with outstanding material properties.

Oerlikon AM says that the adoption of AM technology for series production is occuring at an ever-increasing pace. “For our customers to remain competitive in core technology markets (including semicon and aerospace), scale-up to series production is dependent upon the successful execution of application development, qualification and timely ramp-up to full-scale production,” says Jonathan Cornelus, business development manager, Oerlikon AM. “With Oerlikon and 3DSystems joining forces, this partnership will accelerate the industrialization of metal AM through an integrated team approach between the customer, printer OEM and manufacturing partner. The efficiency gains will maximize the benefits of additive manufacturing across design, materials, printing and postprocessing to break performance barriers in the manufacturing supply chain.”

Industries such as aerospace and semiconductor manufacturing require precision without compromise. “Companies focusing on these areas require constant innovation to meet the accuracy, speed, reliability and productivity demands of increasingly complex production,” says Scott Green, solutions leader, 3D Systems. “Bringing together the industry-leading technology and applications expertise of 3D Systems and Oerlikon AM is delivering increased quality, improved total cost of ownership, reduced time to market and minimized supply chain disruption. I’m looking forward to seeing how our collaboration can amplify and accelerate the potential of metal AM.”

Source | Bally Ribbon Mills

Bally Ribbon Mills (BRM, Bally, Pa., U.S.) designs, develops and manufactures highly specialized engineered woven fabrics. BRM experts are on hand in to discuss the company’s 3D woven joints, thermal protection systems (TPS) and other 3D structures.

In partnership with NASA (Washington, D.C., U.S.) BRM recently developed a 3D orthogonally woven 3DMAT quartz material for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle’s (MPCV) compression pads. 3DMAT was named the 2023 NASA Government Invention of the Year.

BRM uses 3D continuous weaving to create new joint structures and improve existing joints. Delivering an optimal blend of strength, durability and structural integrity, BRM’s 3D woven joints are available in “Pi – π,” double “T,” “H” and other complex net shapes. According to the company, these joints reduce weight and cost without sacrificing integrity and performance. Because of the nature of the 3D weave, strength and support is translated in all three dimensions, thus enabling the join to reinforce the strength along the load paths of the substructures being joined together. These woven shapes can be tailored to suit the architecture of the structure itself, as well as the subcomponents being joined.

3D woven composites by BRM are said to be particularly successful in aviation heat shield applications such as TPS. These systems are mission-critical components, particularly in space exploration vehicles. The ability to vary yarn types, density, thickness and width, as well as resin type, enables BRM to create fully customizable TPS to fit each specific mission or application’s needs.

Along with TPS systems, 3D woven components also function well as engine parts in aircraft. Replacing traditional titanium engine components with 3D woven carbon fiber composites serves to reduce weight and therefore lifetime cost, all while meeting the rigorous demands of manufacturing and use.

Source: 6K Additive

6K Additive, a division of 6K, has been selected by RTX Technology Research Center (RTRC) and the University of Arizona for the America Makes and National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) EARTH project. The proposal directly addresses more sustainable production of aerospace and defense products via additive manufacturing (AM).

The EARTH Project totals $1.2 million and is funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Research and Engineering Manufacturing Technology Office (OSD(R&E)). The proposal is expected to increase the deposition rate by at least 2 times and reduce feedstock production energy by at least 75% while maintaining part quality, providing an overall 50% reduction in energy used to produce a component using additive manufacturing (AM).

Leveraging 6K Additive’s tested track record in sustainable production of AM powder, the RTRC will utilize advanced mode-guided process development techniques, emerging commercially available laser optics and more efficient powder feedstock to optimize additive build Ti-6A1-4V material for deposition rate, feedstock reuse and recyclability. The feedstock and print process optimization will be paired with techno-economic and life cycle analyses to quantify and exploit its benefits to sustainability.

“RTX is pursuing sustainable additive manufacturing processes to produce next-generation aerospace and defense products as well as support out-of-production part replacement. As part of this plan, our goal is to introduce hundreds of additively manufactured parts to the market over the next several years,” says Brian Fisher, principal investigator for the POSAM project, RTX. “We selected 6K Additive because of their process of converting revert and used powder into high-value, premium powder, which helps us to measure quality and carbon footprint in the same project. These advances not only make additive manufacturing more sustainable but will drive down costs for production at scale.”

This POSAM approach, coupled with a rigorous assessment of its impact, is expected to dramatically accelerate the adoption of AM within the Department of Defense supply chain. The RTX, 6K Additive and University of Arizona team will prove the POSAM approach’s ability to speed print rates and reduce energy, but also its ability to streamline complex supply chains through lower cost, sustainable processes and use of flexible material sources.

“Time and again, 6K Additive continues to prove itself as having one of the market’s only tested processes to achieve new levels of sustainability and quality in a highly regulated market in aerospace and defense,” says Frank Roberts, 6K Additive president. “And much of this success is driven by our proprietary technology for processing titanium and refractory metals at scale — powering both customers and the environment by recycling scrap streams back to premium powders,”

6K Additive says it is the world’s first producer of additive manufactured powder made from highly sustainable sources — offering a full suite of premium powders, including nickel, titanium, copper, stainless steel, aluminum alloys and refractory metals such as tungsten, niobium, and rhenium. 

Utilizing the UniMelt production-scale microwave plasma process, the technology spheroidizes metal powders while controlling the chemistry and porosity of the final product with zero contamination and high-throughput production. Based on a recent LCA study, the approach makes it possible to achieve reductions of 90% in energy usage and carbon emissions for its nickel-based alloys and a 75% reduction for titanium alloys.

Source (All Images) | Cevotec GmbH

Following successful completion at the end of 2023, Cevotec (Munich, Germany) has presented the final results of the ACoSaLUS joint R&D project, which sought to develop and test an industrial solution that accelerates the production process for sandwich composites. Efforts targeted aerospace manufacturing, which is still characterized by parts that are produced manually at high production costs and with limited scalability.

Together with partners GKN Aerospace Deutschland, material supplier SGL Carbon, TUM – Chair of Carbon Composites and Technical University of Applied Sciences Augsburg, the project advanced the basis of Cevotec’s fiber patch placement technology — it is capable of laying up different type of materials, from structural (carbon fibers) to auxiliary (glass fibers, adhesives), onto a 3D tool to produce complex aerospace parts with one single machine setup — and introduced new layup features.

To quantify the consortium’s goal of proving (via automation) that legacy parts can remain financially viable and production rate increases in the aviation market can be met, the project team set an ambitious target to demonstrate a layup rate increase to 15 square meters/hour for a reference part.

Horizontal tail plane (HTP) fairing demonstrator.

A horizontal tail plane (HTP) fairing was selected. On aircraft, it protects and shields the structural attachment of the horizontal tail to the empennage. This legacy part features high geometric complexity and a sandwich structure that combines monolithic skins and film adhesive with a Nomex honeycomb core, making the manual manufacturing complicated and time-consuming.

The HTP fairing has put previously developed FPP capabilities to a test and called for the development of new features in order to perform the demonstrator production according to specification. The following table summarizes key FPP features deployed in the actual demonstrator
layup:

The combination of the above features enabled the production of five demonstrator parts, validating the capability of FPP in automating the manufacture of legacy parts. At the same time, the mechanical performance of the part was not compromised. After performing bending tests in accordance with the OEM’s requirements, the FPP parts showed 25% improved deflection at an increased material deployment of less than 10% due to planned overlaps. In addition to the increase in mechanical performance, layup time also was significantly reduced by efficient FPP layup.

In conclusion, the project was successful: patch layup was performed fully
automated and the option to remove intermediate debulking steps was confirmed. As a result, the project team reached the initial goal to of speeding up the layup process. Skin layup showed the potential to increase the layup rate by factor >7 times, from 1.5-2 square meters/hour (reference process)
to 14.5 square meters/hour via FPP. Additionally, critical stiffness was increased by 25% with only slightly increased material use.

By making the technologies and strategies developed in this project available to FPP users, this project can serve as a blueprint for further automation activities within legacy aircraft programs as production rates continue ramp up.

This post is courtesy of the CompositesWorld and AZL Aachen GmbH media partnership.

As new materials are used to manufacture aerospace connectors, coatings technologies are evolving to meet market needs.  Source: Adobe Stock

Aluminum has long been the substrate of choice for connectors in the aerospace industry based on its strength-to-weight ratio, high machinability and relatively low cost. These connectors are used in various applications, from mechanical systems to structural components, especially in electrical interconnect assemblies, making them a critical factor in design and manufacturing. Coating systems are often applied to these connectors to improve performance and functionality and meet rigorous standards and specifications, ensuring aircraft systems’ safety and reliability. A commercial jetliner can contain upwards of 10,000 circular connectors that provide power to multiple systems, including avionics, flight control, power control and in-flight entertainment systems. The MIL-DTL-38999 for plated connectors is the anchor of global circular interconnect technology and the preferred connector specification employed in various commercial and military applications.  

With the constant goal of lightweighting, aerospace component manufactures are increasingly turning to advanced plastics and composite materials. Interconnect devices made from such materials often require plated metal finishes for connectivity or shielding properties.
Source: MacDermid Enthone Industrial Solutions

The Rise of Composite Materials

While aluminum remains the primary substrate of use, manufacturers are exploring and using engineered plastics and composite materials with plated metal finishes. The primary target for moving towards composites and advanced plastic interconnect devices within aerospace is weight reduction, though this technology provides additional performance benefits. Plastics and composites offer significantly lighter substrates compared to aluminum, making them an ideal choice for OEMs looking to optimize the performance and range of their aircraft. For example, every 1 pound (454 g) of weight reduction on a commercial aircraft equates to ~$1 million in fuel cost savings over a plane’s lifespan. Interconnect devices, housings and other components can benefit from the reduced weight of plastics, and adding electroless and electroplated coatings to the surface can offer advanced performance characteristics. The coating layers can be tailored to meet specific needs, reducing cost in the processing stages while achieving the same or superior shielding, resistance/conductance and lightning strike performance (LSP) as similar aluminum components.

The desire to advance further into plastic and composite components has created a need for advanced plastics with unique and high-performing physical properties. Recent developments in plastic and composite technologies and manufacturing processes have rapidly expanded their use in aerospace systems. The need for lightweight components, coupled with required durability, fire resistance, strength and temperature operation ranges, has brought plastic resins including polyetheretherketone (PEEK), polyetherimide (PEI) and polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) to the forefront. These engineered plastics lead the way in manufacturability and performance standards through molding and rapid 3D printing processes. Applying current surface treatment methodologies to these complex resins has proven more difficult and costly for applicators, producing lower average yields compared to traditional ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) and ABS/PC (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene/polycarbonite) plastics. Additionally, these methods result in a lower bond strength between the plastic substrate and subsequent metal coatings making it more difficult to meet critical performance criteria, especially lightning strike requirements. However, innovations for plating on plastics, such as MacDermid Enthone’s evolve chrome-free etch technology, are pioneering a proven and sustainable path for the wide range of engineered plastics.

The MIL-DTL-38999 spec for plated connectors is the preferred connector specification employed in various commercial and military aerospace applications.  
Source: Adobe Stock

Plating on Plastics — Delivering Performance and Efficiency

Composite plastic components require surface processing to prepare the substrate material into a uniform structure most suitable for bonding the subsequent metallic coatings. Surface preparation is the most crucial step to meeting the rigorous standards for durability, cyclic thermal testing and adhesion testing. In meeting the stringent performance demands of the aerospace industry, many standardized and unique processes are employed to achieve the etched surface required for strong bonding of plated metallic coatings. Traditionally, this is achieved through high-cost and labor-intensive steps, including sand blasting, abrasive tumbling, spray or dip organo-metallic bonding coatings or the widely used hexavalent chrome etching, depending on plastic types and applicator capabilities.

Hexavalent chrome, a known substance of concern, and its PFAS-containing additives have been at the center stage of targeted replacement in industrial applications for years, with notable regulations being implemented within the electroplating industry. This sector has set goals to improve the health and safety of the workforce, air quality, and waste streams. For example, MacDermid Enthone’s evolve chrome-free etch technology has been proven to eliminate these concerns and provide a future-proof, sustainable process free of hazards. This technology is designed to meet regulations and has been used on electroplated aerospace plastic interconnect devices for over a decade.

The adaptive nature of this hexavalent chromium-free technology enables the same high efficiency and uniform surface preparation an applicator expects in a stable and sustainable process. The benefits of adopting evolve go beyond just hazard and health risk reductions, enabling highly controlled and tailored etching of both traditional plastics (ABS and ABS/PC) and new engineered plastics (PEEK, PEI and PPS) with or without glass-filled or carbon-fiber reinforcement. This equates to a single-system operation for all surface preparation needs. Implementing chrome-free etch processes requires minimal changes to the manufacturing process, making transitions easy through the utilization of traditional process knowledge.

Meeting Lightning Strike Test Requirements with Electroless Nickel

Legacy aluminum MIL-DTL-38999 connectors employ electroless nickel as an intermediate or final finish to provide corrosion protection of the aluminum substrate. Electroless nickel plays a critical role as a barrier layer designed to preserve the conductive performance of the connector assembly in corrosive environments. The electrical resistance allowance for a MIL-DTL-38999 connector assembly is highly restrictive, with a maximum of 2.0 milliohms "as-plated" and 5.0 milliohms resistance after neutral salt spray testing. The anticorrosion performance of the electroless nickel layer is especially critical in providing lightning strike protection of the connector assembly in commercial and military aerospace applications. A connector must meet the lightning strike standard (EIA/ECA-364-75) and withstand up to 200 kA while maintaining its structural integrity, conductive performance, and EMI shielding effectiveness. Mid-phosphorous (7-9% P) and/or high-phosphorous (10-12% P) electroless nickel deposits are extensively used on MIL-DTL-38999 connectors as the anticorrosion and conductive properties of these deposits meet specification requirements.   

For MIL-DTL-38999 connectors utilizing nonconductive substrates such as PEEK and PEI Ultem, the electroless nickel deposit serves a slightly different role. Because of the nonconductive nature of composite substrates, a copper metallization step is used to achieve conductive functionality. In this application, electroless nickel provides corrosion protection of the copper layer to preserve the conductive continuity of the connector. Historically, aerospace connector OEMs have struggled to meet the lightning strike performance requirements using nonconductive substrates. Protecting the integrity of the copper conductive layer and maximizing its adhesion to the nonconductive substrate are keys to achieving consistent lightning strike results for connectors. Mid-phosphorous electroless nickel is typically the preferred process for plastic and composite connector applications. The higher percentage of nickel in mid-phosphorous electroless nickel deposits also produces slightly better conductive properties when compared to its high-phosphorous counterpart.

Innovations in pretreatment and electroless nickel technologies are advancing the adoption of plastic and composite connectors as a viable, cost-saving alternative to legacy aluminum connector technologies. Additionally, as is the case within the electric vehicle market, these new approaches are being leveraged in other applications to realize the same benefits as the aerospace industry.

Left to right: Menouer Boubekeur, director strategic development, applied research and technology, Collins Aerospace; Ray Foley, director advanced systems and demonstrators, applied research and technology, Collins Aerospace; Todd Spierling, principal Technical Fellow, electrification, power and controls, Collins Aerospace; Mary Lombardo, vice president engineering, Collins Aerospace; Henri Werij, dean faculty of aerospace engineering TU Delft; Mechteld van Beijeren, strategic partnership manager aerospace engineering TU Delft; Ingrid Houthuysen, strategic partnership manager aerospace engineering TU Delft; Michael Foley, associate director, sustainability office, Pratt & Whitney; Femke Verdegaal, strategic partnership manager aerospace engineering TU Delft. Source | RTX

Collins Aerospace (Charlotte, N.C., U.S.), Pratt & Whitney (East Hartford, Conn., U.S.) and Delft University of Technology (TU Delft, Netherlands) have signed a master research agreement (MRA) enabling bilateral collaboration across a range of sustainable aviation research opportunities, including advanced materials, hydrogen propulsion, advanced manufacturing and industrial design. Through the MRA’s strategic framework, Collins Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney will initiate multiple research projects involving TU Delft graduate research facilities, students and staff over the next 5 years. Collins Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney are RTX businesses.

“Collaboration between RTX engineers and university research institutions plays an important role in developing our understanding of emerging technologies, while also supporting the next generation of talent that will drive our industry forward,” says Michael Winter, RTX chief science officer. “Our MRA with TU Delft — our first agreement of its kind with a European university institution — will focus on advancing technologies to support more sustainable aviation, which is key to the future of our industry.”

Among the first projects initiated, Collins and TU Delft are collaborating on a high-speed intelligent inspection system to enhance manufacturing processes for lightweight and recyclable aircraft materials — RTX told CW that this will include state-of-the-art honeycomb structure materials and composites. Pratt & Whitney and TU Delft will develop novel engine configurations that use thermal energy recovery technologies in order to improve fuel efficiency and reduce CO₂ emissions for commercial aircraft.

The new research agreement builds on long-standing engagement between Collins, Pratt & Whitney and TU Delft, including through European framework program such as Clean Aviation, under which Collins and TU Delft are part of the COCOLIH2T project, aimed at developing technologies for storing liquid hydrogen fuel on commercial aircraft. The companies sponsor TU Delft’s aerospace student association VSV Leonardo da Vinci and facilities, there is a close collaboration with the Aerospace Innovation Hub at TU Delft, as well as regular internship opportunities at Collins Aerospace’s aircraft interiors development facility in Houten, Netherlands.

Source | Airbus

Airbus (Toulouse, France) celebrated its 500^th U.S.-built aircraft at the company’s U.S. manufacturing facility in Mobile, Alabama, where it has been producing aircraft since 2015. Airbus’ aircraft made in Mobile, a Delta Air Lines A321neo, marked the latest production milestone since the company announced it would build a second A320 Family final assembly line in the same location to increase Airbus’ global industrial capacity. The final assembly line is currently under construction and is entering into service next year.

“This 500^th aircraft milestone belongs to our Airbus employees. Their relentless passion and hard work made this achievement possible,” says Daryl Taylor, senior vice president of commercial aircraft operations for Airbus in the U.S. “Our journey has also been supported every step of the way by our community, and by our customers who have put their trust in Airbus. We look forward to continuing to build safe, quality aircraft for our customers in the U.S. and Latin America.”

Since taking delivery of its first Mobile-produced A320 Family aircraft in 2016, Delta has added more than 130 U.S.-produced A320 and A220 Family aircraft to its fleet.

“Delta has been a part of many milestones at Airbus in Mobile, including taking delivery of the site’s 15^th and 100^th produced A320 Family aircraft, and the first U.S.-built A220 aircraft. We are honored to welcome the 500^th U.S.-built aircraft into the fleet,” says Kristen Bojko, vice president-fleet, Delta Air Lines. “We appreciate the ongoing partnership with Airbus and its team in Mobile who help us provide a premium travel experience on fuel-efficient aircraft assembled and delivered in the U.S.”

Airbus delivered its first A320 aircraft from its U.S. facility in 2016. In 2020, the company inaugurated its A220 final assembly line and delivered its first A220 aircraft the same year.

Airbus has more than 2,400 employees across its aircraft production, engineering and U.S. Space & Defense facilities in the Port City. To support the company’s growing industrial capacity, some Airbus suppliers have started operations in the region, adding to employment opportunities to strengthen the local economy.

(Top left) Digital technologies are key for the aerospace industry to achieve its decarbonization ambition. (Center) Airbus is exploring natural fibers and bio-resins as part of its Future Materials initiatives. (Bottom left) The lightweight composite A350 lower wing cover is manufactured at the Illescas plant and sent to Broughton, U.K., but new materials and technologies are needed to meet Airbus’ decarbonization ambition. Source | Airbus

This blog is an online sidebar for CW’s September 2024 article, “Plant tour: Airbus, Illescas, Spain” and is based on discussions during and after that tour. It looks at where Airbus is headed with respect to composites and circularity including recycling, bio-sourced materials, digitalization and more.

Sustainability and new aircraft development

 

The A350 was a new step in composite airframe component production (top) but new technologies are needed to meet aviation’s decarbonization goals (bottom). Source | ECO-COMPASS project (Airbus was a partner) and Airbus: Decarbonisation

“‘We pioneer sustainable aerospace for a united world,’” is Airbus’ mission statement, explains Mónica Álvarez, head of the Airbus Illescas production plant. “We want to lead an ecosystem of change to decarbonize aviation.”

“The A350 was a new step in composite component production,” she continues, “driven by weight savings and less fuel consumption. We have also contributed to the journey with our latest generation of A320 family aircraft. But for future gains, we need new materials and higher productivity industrial systems to enable us to ramp up quickly and contribute to our decarbonization ambition.”

“There are two priorities for Airbus right now,” notes Álvarez. “The new replacement for single-aisle narrowbody aircraft and the ZEROe short-range hydrogen-fueled electric aircraft, scheduled to fly by 2035.” In its 2023 Annual Report, Airbus indeed noted that it will be making crucial decisions about the architecture of its next-generation single-aisle aircraft and first hydrogen-powered airliner. “We expect to have a high amount of composites on both,” says Álvarez. Thus, the capability to ramp up new composite structures is key. For example, production of the current A320/A321 family of narrowbodies will be increased to 75 aircraft per month by 2027. 

Future of composites depends on circularity

“Making our aircraft lighter is key,” says Blanka Szost-Ouk, materials Fast Track leader at Airbus. “I’m one of six Fast Track leaders at Airbus that is developing the roadmap for key technologies, and materials is one of those.” The others are electrification, autonomy, connectivity, industrial and AI. “Composites are one of the lightest materials that we can use, but their end-to-end circularity needs to be improved.”

As an Airbus expert in multifunctional composites, Tamara Blanco agrees. Her scope of work now includes sustainability as a key function for composite materials. “We are following the needs of the business,” says Blanco. “Composites are the materials of choice for future aircraft due to their lightweight capabilities versus aluminum, and that is key to meet the requirements for reduced fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions. However, to ensure composites are the materials chosen for the future, we need to develop solutions for these other areas in the life cycle [i.e., other than in-service use] where composites have a larger environmental footprint — such as the material production, waste management and also end of life [EOL]. I’m focusing a lot on developing the best solutions for composite materials in these areas.”

“We are working for resins and fibers that are made from reduced emissions sources,” says Szost-Ouk. “But we also have very interesting projects in Illescas where we give composites — in this particular case, carbon fiber-reinforced thermoset prepreg — a second life. We reuse the uncured material that would normally go to waste and make another part from these materials, such as fillers for the stringers on the A350 lower wing covers.”

Airbus is recycling prepreg tape into fillers/noodles for A350 wing cover T-stringers, similar to the one shown here, but using extrusion instead of 3D woven textiles. Source | CW news, 3D Noodles International AB

“A circular economy is especially relevant for us as we look at materials, even more so for composites,” says Blanco. During CW’s tour of Airbus Illescas, she pointed out a forming cell where leftover ends of prepreg tape rolls are put into an extrusion machine, converting them into triangular fillers/noodles for the A350 wing cover T-stringers.

“We must enable recyclability of our production scrap but also of EOL parts,” she continues. “Here, we have a collaboration between the Illescas plant and a large civil engineering company Comsa, in order to mechanically recycle cured composite scrap to be used as reinforcement for concrete material.”

Airbus oversaw the HELACS project to demonstrate the dismantling and recycling of carbon fiber composite aircraft components. Source | HELACS project news and CW news

Another initiative in this area is the Clean Sky 2 project HELACS (Holistic processes for the cost-effective and sustainable management of End of Life of Aircraft Composite Structures), which ran from January 2021 to December 2023. Airbus acted as the topic manager with a consortium led by the Aitiip Technology Center (Zaragoza, Spain) and including Teruel Airport (Teruel, Spain), the research center Centexbel (Ghent, Belgium) and carbon fiber recycling company Gen 2 Carbon in Coseley, U.K. The project demonstrated industrially and environmentally safe methods for dismantling and recycling carbon fiber composite aircraft components. Dismantling techniques included waterjet cutting and an autonomous robotic system, while recycling of components was mainly based on pyrolysis to recover the carbon fiber and produce new materials.

Multifunctionality, electrical and thermal conductivity

Multifunctionality in composites continues to be a key trend for Airbus, says Blanco. “Going from a metal fuselage to a composite fuselage in the A350, we had to implement different solutions to deal with lightning strike protection [LSP],” she explains. Thus, certain composite components not only provided lightweight structure, but were also engineered with electrical conductivity as part of the LSP system. “And now we are working on enhanced lightweight solutions for the next generation of aircraft based on new materials, designs and different technologies.”

Airbus is pursuing advancements in electric flight such as (top left clockwise) ZEROe fuel cell and hydrogen-powered aircraft, the ASCEND superconductive powertrain demonstrator and the Cryoprop electric powertrain demonstrator. Source | Airbus

"Multifunctionality is even more important for next-generation aircraft because they will be more electrical,” Blanco continues. “This is in line with aviation ambition to reach net zero CO₂ emissions by 2050 set by IATA, ATAG and ICAO.” She explains that Airbus has defined an energy roadmap, which takes advantage of synergies between numerous Airbus activities and products. “It includes three main trends that are being investigated in parallel: Incremental developments and adoption of SAF [sustainable aviation fuel], modular hybrid electrics and the ZEROe aircraft, which are mainly based on the use of liquid hydrogen for propulsion. From our group we are committed to support this roadmap to enable, as much as possible, the combination of needed functionalities with the lightweight properties composites can offer.”

“We are giving priority to two functionalities for composite materials: electrical and thermal conductivity,” says Blanco, “which are even more critical for next-generation aircraft." She explains that these functions are key for LSP and other electrical functions to prevent electromagnetic hazards. “Additionally, we are trying to find more opportunities to use multifunctional composites, for example, in anti-icing of future aircraft."

Another priority is to increase the thermal conductivity of composites, says Blanco. “This is more and more important for us in future products, where we are investigating other fuel systems such as hydrogen, which requires thermal management.” She is referring not only to the potential use of cryogenic liquid hydrogen, but also to the large heat output of fuel cells. “That’s why these types of functionalities in lightweight composites are key and we’re investigating them for future products.”

“I would also say that if you think about the aircraft, everybody wants to be more connected,” notes Szost-Ouk. “Thus, for future aircraft, we will need a lot of electricity and cables for data-driven systems, which produce heat as they push more and more power through. So, the issue of thermal conductivity also includes general heat management across the aircraft.”

“Although multifunctionality can be enablers for future electric
and low-carbon emissions aircraft, it is very relevant to link new material solutions with weight saving from the very beginning,” says Szost-Ouk. “They always needs to be lighter than those currently used. Some designs we have looked at were sustainable, but they were not lighter, and we couldn’t use these because it would have increased the cost per flight for our customers operating the aircraft. So, we must always have this balance.”

“And not only with lightweight but also with circularity,” adds Blanco. “New materials, including multifunctional composites, need to be in line with our key targets in terms of end-to-end life cycle — from raw material production to EOL strategies.”

Composite sustainability and digitalization

“Finding balanced circular material solutions is increasingly linked with digitalization,” says Szost-Ouk. “For example, the composites industry is pursuing increased materials digitalization, which involves collecting and working with data in digital formats for more efficient storage, access, continuity and analysis. And this enables using information in a proactive, predictable way, to to improve our products across their entire lifetime, from the innovation phase through to EOL.”

Circular material solutions are increasingly linked with digitalization. Source | Airbus: Industry 4.0 and Future Materials

She explains that Materials Sustainability is one of several transversal roadmaps that intersect across Airbus’ businesses and are linked to digitalization. “I see a strong link between sustainability/circularity and digitalization,” says Szost-Ouk. “In fact, I cannot imagine circularity without digitalization. For example, data continuity is key for us to track the history of materials in our parts. And we also are working on digital solutions that will enable us to be faster in our innovation.”

This approach has been announced by carbon fiber producer Toray (Tokyo, Japan) in its Nagoya research hub and in a new flame-retardant prepreg for aircraft applications. Toray is using materials informatics to reduce lead times for such new materials and said it will apply this approach to thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity in new prepregs for aircraft and other industries. Polymer supplier SABIC (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) is also using this approach, developing new products in months versus years by using Schrödinger’s physics-based computational platform. (See “Fast-tracking next-gen polymers”).

Airbus is pursuing similar initiatives, says Blanco. “For the future, in each of these development areas, digitalization is a key enabler. We are pushing digitalization through our company, not just for circularity, but for finding answers much more quickly than in the past.”

Advancing sustainable composites TRL

How does Airbus evaluate these new composites solutions? “In Airframe R&T, we follow the typical TRL [technology readiness level] process used by the aviation industry, where we demonstrate the maturity of a technology step by step,” says Blanco. “We usually start at TRL 2 or 3, but when we do have lower TRL solutions, then we rely on the scientific and external community to demonstrate the viability and application for us. We define clear criteria or performance indicators, and we measure the evolution of the technology versus these.”

TRL levels. Source | European Space Agency

“Now,” she continues, “we also have strong criteria for circularity from the very beginning. We take these into account even before TRL 3. We do a life cycle assessment [LCA] or environmental evaluation to be sure that we will be developing something that is compliant with our sustainability commitments and targets.”

These include not only sustainability in the wide sense of the word, says Szost-Ouk, but also health and safety. “In resins, we are monitoring and already anticipating some potential future substance compliance requirements with EU regulations. We do not start at all with a material that has any concerns in these areas. That must be cleared from the beginning.”

Source | “Towards a circular economy in  the aviation sector …, ” published by the ECO-COMPASS project.

After that, says Blanco, developments are measured against established criteria, including for circularity and functionality. “Composites need to be more competitive in terms of cost as well,” she emphasizes. “And we are working hard on this to ensure composites are chosen for future aircraft because they are needed in terms of lightweight.”

Szost-Ouk says recyclability is also increasingly important. “We not only evaluate the LCA of the technologies we will develop, but we also have specific projects to develop more circular composite solutions, including recycling and EOL solutions as well as bio-sourced composites. We’re putting a lot of effort into this, and I have specific projects in this area.”

Qualifying biocomposites

The historical problem with bio-based composites is that they haven’t offered the same high performance currently required for aircraft. Will this just be a matter of long-term development? “We will definitely not compromise lightweight because the drawbacks for the environment will be higher,” says Szost-Ouk. “Obviously, we have specifications, and any materials we develop must meet these requirements. I believe there is a way forward to find bio-sourced replacements — which could result in a lower environmental footprint than current oil-based materials — for some of the composite materials we are using today, but we still have to go through the same qualification path. Here, computational tools using AI and/or quantum computing will be a stepping stone.”

 

Airbus is testing bio-based composites on the Pioneer Lab helicopter. Source | Airbus: “Pioneering for the programmes” and  “Developing bio-based composites that are fit to fly”

Blanco gives an example. “We will be testing a bio-based carbon fiber in a helicopter as a drop-in solution to replace current carbon fiber composites. This material is coming from wood waste, and our goal is to have the same performance but with much lower CO₂ emissions in carbon fiber production because it’s coming from a bio-source instead of the current petrochemical-based PAN precursor. This fiber has now flown in our helicopter flying lab. So, we are on the way to demonstrate that we can obtain both resins and fibers from bio-sources, looking first at fibers, and proving the same performance as current materials.”

“If we think about bio-based materials, such as PA11 that comes from the castor plant, the properties are a bit weaker compared to the petrochemical-based polymer,” says Szost-Ouk. “So, we will have to develop alternatives. But I think these types of solutions can be aided with digital technologies, which will speed up our ability to find solutions in the next few years. We at Airbus are very active in this area, and not just doing experimental work but also supporting computations with the latest in innovative technologies.”

Moving forward as a supply chain

As the efforts to reach these sustainability targets ramp up, Szost-Ouk also notes that Airbus is an end user, “so we very much depend on the material suppliers. We need to work more closely with them, and they will have to be more open with us about all of these polymer and material formulations because they are the ones that actually will have to alter their current chemistries.” She adds that Airbus is indeed pushing for this collaboration throughout the supply chain. “Even in procurement, we are working to support and guide our composite suppliers, giving more weight in prioritization if they can show us how traceable the material is and how circular it can be. In order to find the solutions the aviation industry needs, we need to do it together.”

“We must lower the carbon footprint during production not just of parts, but also of the resins and carbon fiber,” says Blanco. “This is a big challenge but necessary to lower these effects in LCA, enable the increased use of composites in future aircraft and meet Airbus’ decarbonization ambition.”

Trim tool printed by Ascent using Airtech’s Dahltram S-150CF ABS material. Source: Ascent Aerospace

Airtech Advanced Materials Group, an industry provider of specialty-formulated additive manufacturing (AM) materials, and Ascent Aerospace, an expert in aerospace tooling production, have entered into an exclusive supply agreement.

Through this partnership, Airtech will support Ascent’s AM tooling business in both the commercial and defense aerospace sectors, providing advanced technical and business development support. In return, Ascent will commit to the exclusive use of Airtech resin products for large-format additive manufacturing (LFAM).

“We are excited to collaborate with the team at Ascent Aerospace to support the initiative to supply high-performance, large-format printed tooling in some of the most challenging applications in the industry,” says Gregory Haye, director of additive manufacturing at Airtech Advanced Materials Group. “Ascent has been a long-time customer of Airtech, and we look forward to growing this relationship while helping the market adopt this game-changing technology."

Ascent produces a full suite of both mold and assembly tooling required for the aerospace manufacturing market. “With the vast number of ongoing and forecasted development programs moving at an accelerated pace, Ascent implemented additive manufacturing capabilities to provide a cost-effective, rapid tooling solution. However, it became imperative for us to have an expert in material science walk alongside us,” says Dan Friz, vice president of business development and sales at Ascent Aerospace. “This agreement with Airtech ensures Ascent’s customer’s technical requirements are achieved with their material expertise, allowing Ascent to focus on delivering a tooling solution that meets the program’s cost and schedule expectations.”

The combination of Airtech’s high-performance materials and Ascent’s production capabilities aim to support the adoption of polymer composite additive tooling to some of the most demanding applications and customers in the world.

Mark D. Benedict, Ph.D., senior scientist, Convergent Manufacturing, Air Force Research Laboratory, was presented with America Makes’ 2024 Distinguished Collaborator Award. Source: America Makes

America Makes, the national additive manufacturing (AM) innovation institute, announced the recipients of its 2024 Ambassador Awards and Distinguished Collaborator Award at its annual Members Meeting and Exchange (MMX) event held August 6-7 in Youngstown, Ohio.

The Ambassador Award Program, launched in 2017, recognizes individuals who have continually demonstrated outstanding dedication to advancing America Makes and its mission. The 2024 class represents a cross section of the industry whose work has helped further advance additive technology and demonstrated the resilience of the AM community.

These champions also represent the progress made in AM technology, ecosystem expansion and workforce development. 

America Makes’ 2024 Ambassadors:

• Rachael Andrulonis, director of Advanced Materials Research, National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR)
• Cheryl Bowman, chief, High Temperature& Smart Alloys Branch, NASA Glenn Research Center
• Robert Carter, deputy chief, Materials & Structures Division, NASA Glenn Research Center
• Sarah Jordan, CEO, Skuld LLC
• Mark LaViolette, managing director, Deloitte Consulting
• Thierry Marchione, laser engineering specialist, Caterpillar (CAT)
• Kay Matin, president, AlphaSTAR Corp.
• Travis Mayberry, additive manufacturing lead, RTX Corp.
• Frank Medina, associate professor/director of Technology & Engagement, University of Texas at El Paso
• Marlee Rust, business development manager, General Electric Global Research

Also, during the event, Mark D. Benedict, Ph.D., a senior scientist in Convergent Manufacturing with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, was presented with the 2024 Distinguished Collaborator Award. Established in 2014, recipients of this award are celebrated for cultivating effective collaborative relationships with academia, government and industry. Serving as the chief technology advisor at America Makes for nearly six years, the organization says that Benedict has played a pivotal role in the Institute’s strategic planning and defining project requirements as well as the selection and execution of its technical portfolio. He was recognized for his leadership and unwavering dedication to advancing the technologies, practices and innovation in the AM industry and his contributions to the Institute.

“The Institute has been pivotal in forming a Joint Services community focused on additive manufacturing and connecting that community with the companies and universities looking for problems to solve,” Benedict says. “There has always been such positive energy in this ecosystem. I am fortunate to have played a small part in connecting Department of Defense stakeholders with enthusiastic technical teams working to mature this technology. It is an honor to be recognized by the Institute for helping to make progress in this important technology.”

America Makes is the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute. As the national accelerator for AM, America Makes is the nation’s leading and collaborative partner in AM and 3DP technology research, discovery, creation and innovation. Structured as a public-private partnership with member organizations from industry, academia, government and nongovernment agencies as well as workforce and economic development resources, the group is working together to innovate and accelerate AM to increase the nation’s global manufacturing competitiveness. Based in Youngstown, Ohio, America Makes is the first Institute within the Manufacturing USA infrastructure and is driven by the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM). 

Build plate showcases a qualification build studying material defect formation using parametrically defined and varied parameters. Created by MIMO Technik Inc. with testing by Astro Mechanical Testing Laboratory and printed on SLM Solutions’ 500 3D metal machine. Source: Dyndrite

Dyndrite and the AM Materials Consortium have selected Mimo Technik and Astro Mechanical Testing Laboratory as their lead fabrication and testing partners for developing open laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) parameter sets for consortium members in the U.S. The consortium is utilizing the companies’ Mastro method and Dyndrite software to streamline and accelerate machine, material and process qualification, with the goal of expediting customers’ serial production process development for additive manufacturing (AM).

In late 2023, Dyndrite joined with AM materials producers Constellium, Elementum 3D and Sandvik to establish an industry-led Materials Consortium for AM. The joint effort is designed to make LPBF powder parameters and related testing data for common materials freely and publicly available to end users, enabling increased knowledge sharing and better outcomes as well as faster adoption of AM machines, materials and techniques. The LPBF material parameters support Dyndrite’s LPBF Pro’s extended toolpathing capabilities, including support-free parameter sets. 

Research Partners Proficiencies

As part of the research, Dyndrite provides its expertise as a provider of its GPU-accelerated computation engine used to create next-generation digital manufacturing hardware and software. Constellium’s focus lies in the development and manufacturing of high value-added aluminum products and solutions, including Aheadd Aluminum Powders such as CP1 for AM. Meanwhile, Elementum 3D brings its innovation for gas-atomized aluminum alloy AM feedstock powders, while Sandvik is a high-tech engineering group that offers solutions to enhance productivity, profitability and sustainability for the manufacturing, mining and infrastructure industries.

Developing Qualification Protocols

Mimo Technik and Astro spent the last two years developing the “Mastro AM-MCQP-2024: Additive Material Characterization and Qualification Protocol for Production Readiness,” a process for streamlining qualification efforts for the additive industry. This “hyperfast” qualification process involves iterative experiments to determine values for all variables that influence the metal printing process. The parameters are then stored in Dyndrite build recipes for usage. The platform consists of standardized and shareable Mastro Dyndrite build recipes, which are used for parameter development and the Astro testing process. 

Mastro-qualified materials are now in production for fracture-critical hardware such as landing gear, propulsion systems, payload structures and defense applications. The Mastro Dyndrite process is the foundation of this protocol and can be explored at www.mastro.vision.

Streamlining Materials and Process Development

The partners say that materials and process development has historically been a long, costly and labor-intensive process. The consortium aims to disrupt this tradition and provide for a more streamlined and cost-effective future for qualifying AM materials and processes for LPBF machines.

“A lack of known, well-tested and flexible printing parameter sets is slowing adoption of additive manufacturing,” says Ravi Shahani Ph.D., Constellium’s AM chief engineer. “Metal 3D users are either limited by materials offered by their OEM or waste an inordinate amount of time and resources developing and requalifying parameter sets, often starting from scratch each time. Working with Dyndrite and Mastro, users can now leverage the transparency of publicly available, tested parameter sets upon which to build.”

Elementum 3D says it has been pleased with the partnership to co-develop parameter sets for its materials. It believes the partnership with the AM Materials Consortium will lead to continued success of developing faster, more reliable parameter sets for materials of the future with production success in mind.

Sandvik is also optimistic about the consortium research. “Sandvik has been producing metal powders for 45 years and LPBF powders for over 20 years, offering the widest selection of alloy powders,” says Luke Harris, sales director for Sandvik’s metal powder business. “Working with our consortium partners, we can democratize AM knowledge, accelerate technology adoption and drive industry innovatIon.”

Dyndrite LPBF Pro is a GPU-powered 3D application that brings power and control to the additive computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), materials and process development process. It enables engineers to develop sophisticated and repeatable toolpathing and manufacturing processes. It also offers advanced tools for process development, including 3D geometric queries to detect and optimize print parameters for difficult-to-print geometric features such as domes, cantilevers and thin walls. Users can also speed build rates, expand available materials, improve part quality and deploy support-free print strategies. The software supports 3D metal printers, including Aconity 3D, EOS, NikonSLM, Renishaw and more.

“We’ve enjoyed working with Mimo Technik and Astro Testing in applying Dyndrite LPBF Pro to the previously manual and laborious world of parameter development,” says Steve Walton, head of Product at Dyndrite. “In powering the Mastro process, we speed the delivery of public metal 3D printing parameter sets to market, opening new opportunities for companies leveraging metal 3D printing for rocketry, aerospace, automotive and numerous other uses. We look forward to working with our materials partners to bring many open parameter sets to market.”

Accelerating Paths to Production

Mimo Technik and Astro are continuing to work with metal powder providers to develop, test and release publicly available LPBF parameters for popular materials.

“Dyndrite has been the perfect partner to address the complexities of collecting significant data for understanding manufacturing with novel superalloys,” says Jonathan Cohen, CEO & co-founder of Mimo Technik. “The journey of bringing a new material into the AM process is fraught with challenges. Recognizing this, our teams embarked on demystifying the process, ensuring that the standardization of testing and data collection — following the development of parameter sets — is straightforward and unambiguous.”

Astro says its goal from the outset has been to streamline the process for organizations to onboard new materials and become production-ready on their machines sooner. “We aim to reduce the iterative process traditionally associated with material qualification, lowering both the time to market and the cost of introducing new parts,” says Humna Khan, Astro CEO and co-founder. By establishing a clear, standardized framework for material characterization and qualification, we are not just facilitating a smoother entry to market but also fostering confidence in the parts produced through AM.”

Mississippi facility expansion. Source | Aurora Flight Sciences

On Aug. 21, Aurora Flight Sciences (Bridgeport, W.Va., U.S.), a Boeing company, kicked off a significant expansion of its manufacturing facility near the Golden Triangle Regional Airport in Columbus, Mississippi. The project will expand the facility by 50,000 square feet, renovate 40,000 square feet of existing space and add new automation equipment, robotics and nondestructive inspection (NDI) technologies to support Aurora’s growing aerosystems business.

Aurora Mississippi specializes in manufacturing composite components and assemblies for military and commercial aircraft. First opened at Mississippi State University’s Raspet Flight Research Laboratory in Starkville in 2005, the company moved to its current site in Columbus 2 years later. Starting with 21,000 square feet of space, the site has since expanded to more than 120,000 square feet and hosts advanced manufacturing technologies such as automated fiber placement (AFP).

Aurora’s latest capital investment, now under way, will support increased volume in composite components for executive jets as well as production of MQ-25 Stingray composite skins for Aurora’s parent company, Boeing. The facility will also manufacture components for NASA’s X-66 sustainable flight demonstrator aircraft, among other programs.

“We’re proud to bring this investment to the Columbus, Mississippi community,” said Luke Colville, Aurora’s vice president of manufacturing. “We are excited to welcome new programs to the facility, and we are honored that current customers are choosing to grow their business with us. This success is driven by the hard work and dedication of Aurora’s team members here in Columbus. We are thankful for our employees and for the continued support of local organizations such as the Mississippi Development Authority and Golden Triangle Development LINK.”

Aurora has approximately 100 full-time permanent employees in its Mississippi location and will add more than 60 team members by the end of 2025. Part of the growing aerospace and advanced manufacturing community in Mississippi, Aurora partners with Mississippi State University (MSU) and East Mississippi Community College (EMCC) to strengthen advanced manufacturing research, higher education and workforce development. Aurora is also a strong supporter of local K-12 STEM education summer camps and collaborates with high school vocational education programs.

Aurora’s Mississippi expansion and renovation project will be conducted in phases over approximately 2 years and is expected to complete in 2026.

Source | Boom Supersonic

Boom Supersonic’s (Denver, Colo., U.S.) supersonic demonstrator aircraft, XB-1, has taken to the skies again to successfully complete its thirdd flight. The flight was piloted by chief test pilot Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg at the Mojave Air & Space Port in Mojave, California on Sept. 13, 2024.

During this flight, the team continued to test key systems and performance as they systematically expand the flight envelope. Geppetto took XB-1 to the maximum pitch and yaw attitudes that the company expects to see in flight. This testing was done at a safe, higher altitude to ensure there were no unexpected handling qualities, so as to avoid this happening during a critical phase of flight.

The team also checked the performance of the environmental control system (ECS), which controls the temperature and pressurization of the cockpit. This test is to ensure that the ECS is functioning as designed before XB-1 goes to higher altitudes, where it is colder and the pressure is lower. The landing gear was extended and retracted at higher speeds than its previous flight (215 knots), marking the second of three steps working up to the maximum safe speed for raising and lowering the gear, which is 225 knots. Additionally, the team continued testing of the stability augmentation system, which was demonstrated during the second flight.

The XB-1 flight test program continues to progress, while systematically expanding the flight envelope to confirm its performance and handling qualities, through and beyond Mach 1. According to the company, the sequencing of test flights is set to increase through this next phase of testing, with a total of approximately 10 flights before reaching supersonic speeds.

Following XB-1’s inaugural flight, Boom secured a Special Flight Authorization (SFA) to exceed Mach 1 from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). XB-1 test flights are being conducted in the R-2508 Complex, and supersonic operations are occuring in the Black Mountain Supersonic Corridor and in a portion of the Bell X-1 Supersonic Corridor within the R-2515 airspace, which has been used for research and military supersonic aeronautical operations.

XB-1 provides the foundation for the design and development of Overture, Boom’s supersonic airliner. XB-1 leverages enhanced technologies to enable efficient supersonic flight, including digitally optimized aerodynamics, carbon fiber composites, advanced supersonic engine intakes and an augmented reality vision system for takeoff and landing visibility. 

Spokane facility. Source (All Images) | RTX

On Aug. 27, Collins Aerospace (Charlotte, N.C., U.S.), an RTX business, celebrated the groundbreaking of its expansion at the Spokane, Washington, carbon/carbon (C/C) brake production facility. The site will add 70,000 square feet to its manufacturing space, increasing the site’s footprint by 50% to increase production capacity.

Not only will the facility enhance Collins’ commitment toward growing the workforce to match industry demands, it will also expand the company’s C/C brakes production capacity in the Spokane region to meet commercial aviation and military customer demand that is scheduled to take place over the next several years.

Collins Aerospace breaking ground.

Collins’ SuperCarb and Duracarb aircraft brake materials are made from oxidized PAN fiber (OPF), a precursor to carbon fiber. The OPF fibers are first formed into 2.5D needled preforms, and then carbonized to convert them to carbon fiber preforms. Next, those preforms are densified by carbon chemical vapor infiltration (C-CVI) to produce carbon-carbon composites (more about brake development here). 

“We celebrate this milestone with our industry partners, customers, community leaders and employees who are crucial in supporting this advancement in technological innovation and that of the local Spokane economy,” says Matt Maurer, vice president and general manager for Landing Systems at Collins Aerospace. “This expansion is the latest development in the Pacific Northwest region in advanced technical innovation and manufacturing capacity to support the growing demand for our C/C brakes.”

The Spokane facility is one of three C/C brake production sites at Collins Aerospace that specializes in the production of braking systems with Duracarb disk technology.

For related content, read, “Collins Aerospace to invest $225 million in Landing Systems facility expansions in Fort Worth, Spokane, Pueblo.”

Source | Infinite Composites, EHang, Patz Materials and Technologies, Intuitive Machines, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., AIMEN (DOMMINIO project) and Collins Aerospace.

Over the years, composite materials have been major drivers in aerospace innovation and efficiencies. Recent trends have shown a significant increase in their use — particularly in commercial aircraft — where the material now accounts for more than 50% of the primary structure in some models, like the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350. The last few years have also seen a growing interest in thermoplastics due to their potential for faster production times and recyclability, driving further advancements in manufacturing processes such as AFP and out-of-autoclave (OOA) curing. Forecasts suggest that this sector will reach a value of $62 billion by 2030 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.8%.

Not to be forgotten, advanced air mobility (AAM) has made a rapid ascent in popularity, a market in which composites have become mandatory due to stringent performance and regulatory demands. Crucial to maximizing energy efficiency, and enabling the necessary range and payload capacity with battery-powered propulsion systems, the use of composite materials — particularly carbon fiber — is almost always a given whenever a new company emerges in this space. More aerodynamic shapes and integration of complex features, resistance to corrosion and fatigue and other factors make these materials so important to the commercial viability of AAM services.

In addition, New Space has become a burgeoning economy, with composite materials making applications like SpaceX’s Starship, Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket and OneWeb’s satellite structures a reality. Light weight, high strength, thermal stability, and structural integrity and resiliency all ultimately contribute to lower launch costs and improved orbital longevity, which are essential for advancing the New Space industry’s goals of cost-effective, frequent and sustainable access to space.

For National Composites Week, CW is providing daily roundups starring some of the prominent end markets in which composite materials greatly contribute. Each roundup comprises relevant published content to explore and read. 

Note: Below covers only 2023-2024 articles for these topics. For other related content (including news and products), please visit CW’s markets page.

AAM

• Composite aerostructures in the emerging urban air mobility market

In the not too distant future, point-to-point, limited-distance, piloted and autonomous air travel for people and cargo will be the norm. Composites will make it possible.

• Plant tour: Joby Aviation, Marina, Calif., U.S.

As the advanced air mobility market begins to take shape, market leader Joby Aviation works to industrialize composites manufacturing for its first-generation, composites-intensive, all-electric air taxi.

• Aviation-specific battery system uses advanced composites to address electric, hybrid flight

BOLDair’s composite enclosure, compression structures and thermal runaway management enables high-performance electric energy storage.

• CW Tech Days: Composites in advanced air mobility

This CW Tech Days features subject matter experts exploring the materials, tooling and manufacturing challenges of ramping up composites fabrication operations to efficiently meet the demands of a challenging and promising new marketplace.

About National Composites Week

The goal of National Composites Week (NCW) is to celebrate and bring attention to the ways that composite materials and composites manufacturing contribute to the products and structures that shape the American manufacturing landscape today.

NCW takes place each year in the final week of August and celebrates a specific theme.

The 2024 theme was Composites Reinvent the World. See what companies and individuals shared on LinkedIn and read more from the CW editorial team:

• Composites reinvent infrastructure 
• Composites reinvent transportation 
• Composites reinvent energy
• Composites reinvent automotive
• CW Talks: Interviews with Christopher Mims, Wall Street Journal; Joe Brennan, Joby Aviation

Source | Getty Images

This Nov. 13, from 11:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. ET, CompositesWorld is presenting “CW Tech Days: New Space Applications.” This virtual event, as in past Tech Days, provides an opportunity for industry members to explore the composite technologies, materials and strategies of a prevalent topic or end market. This event is sponsored by Toray, Trelleborg, Zund, Eastman Machine Co. and Deltek TIP Technologies.

The event will begin with an introduction by CW editor-in-chief Scott Francis, followed by six 30-minute presentations. The agenda is as follows (please note that it is subject to change leading up to the event):

• 11:15 – 11:45 a.m.: “Composite structures for space applications” — Presented by Rocket Labs, speaker TBD
• 11:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.: “Composite cryotanks, CFRP structures” — Presented by Peter Ortmann, head of AFP, and Dr. Bernd Thoma, head of composite research and technology programs, MT Aerospace
• 1:00 – 1:30 p.m.: “Composite structures for a new space age” — Presented by Claire Baker, segment manager, space and communications, EMEA, Toray
• 1:30 – 2:00 p.m.: “Quartz in space applications” — Presented by Antony Grasso, marketing and business development, Saint-Gobain ACC
• 2:30 – 3:00 p.m.: “Rock West Composites” — Presented by Jeremy Senne, space segment director, Rock West Composites
• 3:00 – 3:30 p.m.: “Markforged/Sidus Space” — Presented by Markforged and Sidus Space, speaker TBD

Registration is $99; register here to reserve your spot.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Airbus A220. Source | Goncalo Guimaraes

ÉireComposites (Galway, Ireland), a design, manufacturing and testing company involved in fiber-reinforced composite materials, has announced a new deal with Avic Sac Commercial Aircraft Co. Ltd. (SACC, Liaoning, China), which sees ÉireComposites manufacturing internal components for the Airbus A220.

The company, providing work to more than 70 people in the locality, has extensive experience producing composite parts for flight and has refined its processes over the years to become an attractive partner for aerospace customers. Parts from ÉireComposites’ factory have been flying on commercial aircraft since 2008.

SACC designs, tests, manufactures and distributes airplanes. The company mainly produces civilian airplanes, commercial aircraft and related components.

“The new contract with SACC is a testament to our team and their capabilities; it will boost the company and the local area greatly over the coming years, furthering Ireland’s impact on the civil aviation sector,” says ÉireComposites CEO Tomás Flanagan.

This new contract comes off the back of recent additions to ÉireComposites’ work with Spirit AeroSystems (Belfast, Northern Ireland), manufacturing aerostructures for commercial airplanes, defense platforms and business or regional jets. With support from Údarás na Gaeltachta, the company is moving from strength to strength, and is proud to offer job opportunities through both English and Irish to the people of Connemara.

Inside the Endeavor 3D headquarters in Douglasville, Georgia. Source: Endeavor 3D  

Contract manufacturer Endeavor 3D has earned International Traffic in Arms Registration (ITAR) status for metal and polymer additive manufacturing (AM) services. The latest registration (along with ISO 9001:2015 certification) enables Endeavor 3D to expand its commercial business in aerospace, energy, defense and supply chain manufacturing.

ITAR is a set of U.S. government regulations that control the import, export and manufacturing of defense products, services and activities. The purpose of ITAR, which is administered by the U.S. Department of State, is to protect national security and advance American foreign policy interests. As it relates to Endeavor 3D, ITAR regulations include the secure handling of technical data and process control of equipment, components, materials and software to properly support relevant manufacturing needs.

“Endeavor 3D has strengthened its technology capabilities and operational systems to better support the U.S. defense industrial base,” says Phil Arnold, Endeavor 3D Chief Executive Officer. “The ITAR is an important milestone that bolsters our commitment to American manufacturing and innovation. We believe that our portfolio of advanced polymer and metal additive manufacturing services complement major initiatives in defense, energy and supply chain manufacturing.”

The company says it is equipped with the most sophisticated AM and quality control technologies available today. As an HP Digital Manufacturing Network partner, Endeavor 3D has gone through a rigorous accreditation process and approved to be a series production partner for both metal and polymer 3D printing services.

Endeavor 3D is located 30 minutes west of Atlanta in Douglasville, Georgia, and was recently nominated for small business of the year in Douglas County.

Source | FACC AG

International aerospace manufacturer FACC AG (Ried im Innkreis, Austria) reports significant advances in recent years in researching thermoplastic composite materials. The company has now joined 13 European partners in the COMPASS project to address the challenge of efficiently recycling these materials for use in other applications.

The COMPASS project comprising a consortium of experts from academia, research institutions, and industry — representing Austria, Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Germany — will jointly address this challenge by using digital technologies to research the re-manufacturing and reshaping of components from these materials at the end of their lifespan. The project is funded under the European Union’s Horizon Europe program and will be led by Profactor GmbH (Steyr-Gleink, Austria). Through COMPASS, FACC aims not only to repurpose material waste to adopt a circular economic model but to reduce need for raw material extraction and minimize environmental impact.

“Our goal is to achieve carbon-neutral manufacturing by 2040. This project is an important milestone, as it enables us together with our international partners to develop tools and methods for further establishing a circular economy in aviation,” states FACC CEO Robert Machtlinger. “The high-tech materials originally developed for the use in aviation are of high interest for many other industries. By researching this approach together with our partners we are making a significant contribution to more sustainability.”

The research project focuses on a novel data-driven approach to re-manufacturing, including a comprehensive digital component passport and a digital platform for secure information exchange. The passport will capture real-time information about component quality, performance and history to represent a digital twin of the part. The platform, on the other hand, will enable secure access to this data to pre-approved re-manufacturers and also use intelligent tools to help digitally assess re-manufacturing from a technical as well as an economic standpoint. This further provides FACC a business model for future end-of-life parts.

Research into thermoplastic composites, is of course a particular interest to the aviation industry, which maintains high build rates, requiring new production methods that also enable carbon neutral manufacturing. As part of its strategy to establish a robust and high-rate production process in aerospace, FACC joined the international consortium ThermoPlastic composites Research Center (TPRC) in 2021, joining forces with prominent international aerospace companies.

Source | ZeroAvia

ZeroAvia (Hollister, Calif., U.S.) announces that it has been awarded $4.2 million in U.S. federal funding through the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Fueling Aviation’s Sustainable Transition discretionary grant program for Low-Emission Aviation Technology (FAST Tech). The grant supports ZeroAvia’s work to further develop and validate its electric propulsion system designed for 2-5 megawatt powertrain applications.  

The R&D work will take place in ZeroAvia’s Everett, Washington, propulsion center of excellence to advance the design, fabrication and testing of its proprietary electric motor and inverter toward eventual certification and commercial deployment. 

The work is building on ZeroAvia’s HyperCore stackable motor, previously ground-tested at the Everett facility, as well as its silicon-carbide inverters. It complements other ZeroAvia R&D projects in the U.K. focused on high-temperature PEM (HTPEM) fuel cells to unlock hydrogen-electric engines for 40-80-seat aircraft.

ZeroAvia has a background in propulsion technologies development, particularly hydrogen-electric, whether through hydrogen storage and refueling or components like fuel cells and inverters. Earlier in 2024, ZeroAvia and Verne (San Francisco, Calif., U.S.) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly evaluate the opportunities for using cryo-compressed hydrogen (CcH₂) onboard aircraft and for conducting CcH₂ refueling from gaseous hydrogen (GH₂) and liquid hydrogen (LH₂) sources. Verne is known for its development and demonstration of Type III composite versions of these storage systems.

“The FAA is investing in hydrogen and electric propulsion as part of the future for aviation, and our technology is well-positioned to help advance this critical pathway. ZeroAvia appreciates the agency’s recognition of our ability to conduct this important research and development work on electric propulsion systems,” says Val Miftakhov, founder and CEO of ZeroAvia. “This award demonstrates the value of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act in decarbonizing aviation and complements the hydrogen-forward provisions in the recent FAA Reauthorization, both of which are strong indications that U.S. leadership shares our vision of a clean future of flight.” 

Source | GKN Aerospace.

GKN Aerospace (Redditch, U.K.) has plans to increase the capacity and efficiency of its aeroengines manufacturing facility in Trollhättan, Sweden. A new 5,000-square-meter production area will embrace the latest digital factory processes when it is fully operational in 2026, supporting the ongoing global aerospace industry ramp-up.

The investment adds capacity with additional automation, robotics and digital technologies. This will enable GKN Aerospace to drive up productivity, improve quality and reduce industry lead times of its engine systems and major structural components, such as the GEnX, GTF and Trent XWB; GKN says that currently, its aeroengine backlog is as much as 9 years.

“We are seeing record order backlogs and strong growth potential across the industry, and this expansion enables us to support our customers and seize that opportunity,” adds Joakim Andersson, president of GKN Aerospace’s Engine business.

This expansion follows a January announcement that GKN Aerospace is also establishing an Additive Fabrication Centre of Excellence in Trollhättan, as it positions the Engines business for further growth.

NASA project deliverables. Source (All Images) | Goodman Technologies LLC

Goodman Technologies LLC (Largo, Fla., U.S.), a rapid growth nanocomposite ecosystem platform company, with the University of Hawaii at Manoa Hawaiian Nano Laboratory (UHM-HNL) and the Wichita State University (WSU) National Institute of Aviation Research (NIAR), performed work under a NASA (Washington, D.C., U.S.) Phase II STTR that sought to explore the AI-empowered scale-up of additively manufactured continuous fiber ceramic nanocomposites (CFCNC) to revolutionize the manufacturing of thermal protection systems (TPS). These efforts addressed the critical capability gap in the production and installation of these advanced materials for NASA space vehicles and beyond that is affordable and non-labor intensive.

The advanced materials and manufacturing techniques developed in this project are expected to play a critical role in NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) Lunar and Mars missions, as well as the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) planetary missions, which require hypersonic entry through an atmosphere.

 The overarching objectives of this project, spanning Phase I through Phase III, focused on:

• Manufacturing efficiency of TPS approaches: A comparative study of “top-down” and “bottoms-up” TPS approaches was conducted, with the aim of mitigating any disadvantages associated with each method. This dual approach ensured that the most efficient and effective manufacturing process was identified and implemented.
• Design of GTNANO automated robotic manufacturing system (ARMS): This system incorporates a range of advanced manufacturing techniques, including milling, fiber patch placement (FPP) of ceramic nanocomposite prepreg and the printing of ceramic nanopastes. The integration of these processes into a single automated system represents a significant advancement in the field of composites manufacturing.
• Development of nanopaste and prepreg tapes: Critical to the success of the project was the development of a low-shrinkage printable silicon carbide (SiC) nanopaste, as well as continuous roll-to-roll ceramic nanocomposite prepreg tapes. These materials are essential for producing a new category of high-quality continuous fiber ceramic nanocomposites (CFCNCs) with consistent properties.
• Production of a manufacturing verification coupon: Using the ARMS system, an 18-inch manufacturing verification coupon was produced. This coupon serves as a proof of concept, demonstrating the capabilities of the manufacturing process at scale.

During the past 4 years, the GT/UHM-HNL Team has multiple patent filings on the topics of SiC-based nanopastes which are 3D printable, moldable via a proprietary Z-process and have been used to make SiC (Hi-Nicalon)-reinforced prepreg for the molding, curing and joining of CFCNCs. CFCNCs are said to overcome the issue of delamination and segment separation, advancing the potential of spacecraft TPS and hypersonics in general.

GT’s TPS uses the 3D printable and moldable nanopaste for the shell and the Hi-Nicalon SiC/nanoSiC prepreg CFCNCs for the structural layer, which is bonded to a high-temperature CFOAM insulation core with a nanopaste adhesive. The process is amenable with other types of lightweight insulation. According to GT, the nano particulate used in the shell layer enables the system to have increased thermal conductivity, thermal stability and density. GT’s TPS is designed such that during entry through an atmosphere the outer shell will ablate and sublimate leaving the hot structure, which can then have a new shell 3D printed onto the surface for reuse.  Arc-jet testing at NASA Ames Research Center proved that the hot structure was reusable. Notably, other printable ablation layers could be deposited on GT’s reusable hot structure.

3D printed heat shield.

The GT team was selected for a Phase II award where the automated manufacturing of the improved TPS was scaled up to about a half meter, though it is reported that there is really no limitation of scale for the process. To accomplish this, GT developed a large-scale ARMS which consisted of a six-axis robotic arm with the capability of swapping between a nanopaste extrusion end effector, milling attachment and FPP attachment. Alternately, multiple robots and cobots can perform the process.

Ultimately, FPP offers improved performance over the alternative of tape laying. The robotic arm places patches of material in a programmed pattern over the surface of the CFOAM core. Each patch was about 2 × 4 inches and was placed in such a way as to strengthen the areas of the TPS surface which GT has identified will be under higher levels of loading. The use of AI was pervasive throughout the process.

Partners note that each deliverable in this project represents “a quantum leap” in the field of composites manufacturing, particularly for spacecraft and hypersonic systems, including:

• The design of industrial large-scale printer/end effector: The development of a large-scale printer and end effector capable of handling the demands of ceramic nanocomposite materials is a critical step forward. This printer enables the production of large-scale components with the precision and consistency required for aerospace applications. Notable, the robotic arm introduces multiple degrees of freedom beyond the Cartesian and Polar coordinates systems that constrain 3D printers. Likewise, robots and cobots allow scaling of 3D printing beyond conventional build beds.
• Optimized low shrinkage printable SiC nanopaste: This nanopaste reportedly addresses one of the most significant challenges in additive manufacturing — material shrinkage. By optimizing the paste formulation, this project ensures that components maintain their intended dimensions and properties, even after processing.
• Design of scalable roll-to-roll ceramic nanocomposite prepreg: The development of a scalable roll-to-roll prepreg enables the continuous production of ceramic nanocomposite tapes. This capability is essential for manufacturing large components and structures, reducing costs and production times.
• Two-inch ceramic nanocomposite T300/n-SiC prepreg tape: This deliverable provides a practical and scalable material solution for aerospace applications. The 2-inch prepreg tape combines the strength of T300 carbon fibers with the thermal and mechanical properties of SiC, making it ideal for use in high-temperature environments.
• Four-inch bottoms-up and top-down TPS approaches: By refining the bottoms-up and top-down approaches to TPS, this project ensures that the most effective method can be selected based on specific mission requirements. These approaches offer flexibility in design and manufacturing, accommodating a wide range of applications.
• Eighteen-inch ARMS produced manufacturing verification coupon: The production of this coupon demonstrates the viability of the ARMS system for manufacturing large-scale components. This coupon will be subjected to rigorous testing to validate the material and manufacturing process.

Building on the success of this project, GT plans to participate in an investor-matched NASA Commercialization Readiness Pilot Program. This program will combine and test NASA’s 3D printable phenolic with GT’s reusable Hot Structure, with material validation at NASA Ames ArcJet facility. The ultimate goal is to manufacture a spaceflight test demonstrator using the ARMS system.

Moreover, the project has garnered interest from “New Space” companies in exploring GT’s CFCNC materials. These materials also offer retrofit opportunities for missiles, missile fairings, aeroshells and other strategic air platforms, particularly for hypersonic applications in Department of Defense (DOD) Programs of Record and System Primes.

Greene Tweed (Kulpsville, Pa., U.S.), a global manufacturer of high-performance seals, thermoplastics, composites and engineered components, highlights the availability of Xycomp DLF high-performance thermoplastic composite aerospace brackets, which can endure the substantial demands of aerospace environments while offering significant weight savings over metallic parts. Reported to be between 35-60% lighter than competitive metallic components, the brackets are an optimal replacement for metal materials.  

Greene Tweed’s proprietary compression molding system provides high-performance solutions with increased part complexity. The aerospace brackets — which are used to join structural elements together — provide support and hold essential components firmly in place. They can now be produced in complex-contour shapes for near-net, intricate geometry with molded-in features such as bushings or attachment points.  

The material meets fire, smoke and toxicity (FST) safety requirements for interior aerospace parts, and offers resistance to aerospace solvents, high temperatures and high vibrations for extended component life. In addition, Xycomp DLF brackets can be recycled upon removal from an aircraft.  

Source | Heart Aerospace

Heart Aerospace (Gothenburg, Sweden) unveils its first full-scale demonstrator airplane, marking a milestone in the development of its regional hybrid-electric aircraft, the ES-30.

“Our industry is approaching a 30-year innovation cycle, and we have less than 25 years to decarbonize aviation. We need to develop new methods to get net-zero aerospace technologies to market faster,” says Anders Forslund, co-founder and CEO of Heart Aerospace. “It is a testament to the ingenuity and dedication of our team that we’re able to roll out a 30-seat aircraft demonstrator with a new propulsion system, largely in-house, in less than 2 years.”

With a 32-meter wingspan, the demonstrator, named Heart Experimental 1 (Heart X1), serves as a platform for rigorous testing and development of Heart's ES-30 aircraft. The demonstrator features a composite fuselage and wing and, unlike the final version, is powered solely by four 400-kilowatt electric motors built by Italian firm Phase. Moreover, the company’s new nacelle integration design, which uses Heart’s automated composite technology,” will be incorporated into the upcoming prototype.

Nacelle concept improves the aerodynamic performance of the wing on its ES-30 aircraft, enabling it to operate from shorter runways. Source | AIN Media Group Inc.

Initially, the HX-1 is being used for ground-based testing, focusing on charging operations, taxiing and turnaround procedures. It is scheduled to undertake a fully electric first flight in the second quarter of 2025. In preparation for this flight, Heart, over the coming months, is testing critical systems by running hardware tests both on and off the airplane.

Development of the Heart X1 has been funded in part by grants provided by the Swedish Innovation Agency, Vinnova, highlighting the collaboration between government and industry that can bring new aviation technologies to market.

Building on the experience of developing the Heart X1, the company is now focused on creating an aircraft manufacturing process that leans into the latest technologies in composites manufacturing and product lifecycle management, building a data-driven assembly line with high repeatability, automation and nondestructive inspection.

Heart’s next step in developing the ES-30 is the building of a pre-production prototype, the Heart X2, which aims to further mature the design and production methods based on lessons learned from the Heart X1.

The Heart X2 is scheduled for a hybrid flight in 2026 and is set to demonstrate the company’s Independent Hybrid propulsion system. In August of this year, Heart Aerospace was selected for a $4.1 million grant by the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Fuelling Aviation’s Sustainable Transition (FAST) program to develop the management system for the hybrid-electric propulsion.

Source | Heart Aerospace 

This momentum will continue with the establishment of a pilot manufacturing plant to accelerate prototyping toward the manufacturing of a fully conforming aircraft, with Heart targeting type certification of the ES-30 by the end of the decade.

The ES-30 is a regional hybrid-electric airplane with a standard seating capacity of 30 passengers, which intends to deliver sustainability and efficiency on short-haul routes. It contains an electric zero-emission range of 200 kilometers and an extended hybrid range of 400 kilometers.

Flex-Core HRH-302, on display at CAMX 2024. Source | Hexcel Corp.

Hexcel Corp. (Stamford, Conn., U.S.) has launched its nonmetallic Flex-Core HRH-302 mid-temperature honeycomb core, providing a bismaleimide (BMI) solution for the aerospace industry’s evolving thermal management needs.

The FlexCore HRH-302 is designed to sustain service temperatures up to 450°F, bridging the gap between traditional phenolic-based materials and high-cost polyamide solutions. Leveraging the expertise Hexcel has in thermoplastic resins, the product offers improved thermal capabilities while maintaining similar mechanical properties to existing honeycomb materials.

“The flexibility and thermal performance of HRH-302 make it ideally suited for the complex curvatures and increasing heat loads found in next-generation aircraft nacelles” says Bobby Rowe, VP of product management, core and engineered products at Hexcel. “We’re excited to work closely with our customers to demonstrate the benefits of this new material on critical military and commercial programs.”

Flex-Core HRH-302 is currently undergoing testing and certification with aerospace OEMs. The product is expected to be a key enabler for future engine designs, as well as emerging applications in the urban air mobility market, where lightweight, heat-managing materials are in high demand.

Part of Major Tool’s 52,000 square-foot building expansion includes the installation of this new Waldrich Coburg Taurus 30 vertical machining center. Source: All photos provided by Major Tool & Machine.

In the mid-1990s, Major Tool & Machine (MTM) began a transformative journey that saw paper-based shopfloor processes scrapped in favor of a fully integrated electronic approach. The journey began with an ERP system then known as Visual Manufacturing, a system that eventually became the backbone of MTM’s operations, encompassing everything from financials to machining and detailed shopfloor activities.

The system is consistently updated and customized to MTM’s operational framework, methodically inserting checkpoints and automation into every step of planning and production. The result? A 98% on-time delivery rate for some of the most complex large-format machining operations imaginable.

Another result? Our selection of Major Tool and Machine as our 2024 Top Shops honoree in the category of Shopfloor Practices. Here’s why.

A Legacy of Precision and Scale

Major Tool’s automated Parpas flexible manufacturing system (FMS) cells is served by rail-guided vehicles and integrated Zeiss CMMs.

Based in Indianapolis, MTM has been at the forefront of large-format machining since 1946, serving industries where accuracy and on-time delivery are paramount. The company produces complex, large, high-precision parts — parts that are measured in feet and tons rather than pounds and inches — for industries ranging from aerospace and defense to semiconductors and nuclear power.

The large-scale components MTM produces today are often machined from solid blocks of aerospace-grade materials like titanium, Hastelloy, and Inconel —materials that can quickly degrade tools and, if not managed carefully, result in expensive scrapped parts. From submarine components for the U.S. Navy to massive, complex structures for high-NA EUV lithography chip making systems, MTM is often required to hold tolerances within a few thousandths of an inch true position across massive dimensions. Holding those tolerances and achieving on-time delivery requires both state-of-the-art machine tools and an ERP system that automates and controls each step of production.

A Gruppo Parpas XS 20.4, five-axis gantry mill, seen here, is air-cooled to prevent expansion and contraction during long cutting passes.

Kevin Bowling, Chief Operating Officer of MTM, says that the transformation here was first made possible by owning and customizing the ERP’s source code, which allowed Major Tool to create specialized modules tailored to their manufacturing niche. These modules have been integrated into MTM’s custom ERP system to manage quality, planning, execution, and data inspection processes within a single, unified platform. Critically, much of this planning happens before any work hits the shop floor. This includes everything from defining CNC programs or welding operations to tracking material flow and configuration management.

Navigating Logistical Challenges

Major Tool’s campus — show here prior to its ongoing expansion — occupies nearly 700,000 thousand square feet.

Walking through MTM’s vast campus, it’s hard not to be impressed by the sheer size and scale of the company’s production operations. Everything here is big and sprawling and seemingly fraught with logistical challenges, like the time a few years ago when company leadership had to convince local government to allow Major Tool to purchase an adjacent road to accommodate MTM’s oversized trucks.

Major Tool’s five plants — with a 52,000 square-foot expansion underway — are packed with state-of-the-art CNC equipment, including more than 45 machine tools with several that boast X-axis travel capabilities of more than 60 feet. The company employs 427 workers and operates three shifts, seven days a week.

Despite the significant capital investments in state-of-the-art equipment, it was the implementation of advanced software systems that streamlined MTM’s operational controls. From automating gage calibration checks to implementing checkpoints on task assignments for properly trained workers, it is the software that maintains the critical flow of operations. For example: Through a badge scan, the software will detect if welder is not certified for a specific welding process that is required by the U.S. Navy. If that happens, the employee might have to perform a test weld on a coupon plate. That plate will have to be X-rayed and inspected before the employee regains qualification. Until then, the worker physically won’t be allowed to pull the filler metal and perform the operation.

“This is a software system that helps us manage floor level activity that traditionally would be managed by a list,” Bowling says. “Under those conditions, you’re relying on a team leader or supervisor on the floor to keep track of all that. The way we do it takes time, but it is much more effective and efficient.”

Mitigating Risks With Automation

On the hardware side, the company’s machinery includes large-format CNC mills, lathes, and high-speed machining centers from manufacturers like Berthiez, Cincinnati Milacron, Fives, Waldrich Colburg, DMG MORI, and Gruppo Parpas. Many older machines have been retrofitted with Siemens 840D or NX controls, along with new drives, motors, sensors, and in-process inspection probes.

To mitigate risks and reduce cycle times during CNC machining operations, Major Tool uses sensor data to monitor tool conditions and make real-time adjustments, optimizing cuts and preventing machine crashes. This Tool Monitoring Adaptive Control (TMAC) system can override programmed CNC feed rates to maintain optimal power loads throughout each cut.

Bowling says that adding TMAC capabilities to older machines has complemented previous upgrades, such as the controls and the use of in-process part measurement probes, both of which reduce the need for frequent stops and starts. The facility also features an automatic inspection routine using rail-guided vehicles to feed and load into CMMs. If a part is out of tolerance, the CMM halts the process and alerts an operator for troubleshooting.

A Parpas XS 10.4 five-axis gantry mill machining a complex aluminum structure.

It's worth noting that ahead of IMTS 2024 — The International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) — two recent acquisitions, including several Gruppo Parpas XS 10.4 and XS 20.4 five-axis gantry mills, were discovered at the show in 2018. These high-speed machines have X-axis travel capacities of 32.8 feet and 65.6 feet, respectively, and include system-wide environmental controls within the work envelope. The machines’ components such as columns, cross-rails, and machining heads are air-cooled to prevent expansion and contraction during long cutting passes that generate high amounts of kinetic energy. This is crucial for holding tolerances within a few thousandths of an inch across large dimensions — especially useful for the large aluminum high-precision parts MTM produces for the semiconductor industry.

The Role of Software in Operational Success

The hardware, the scale and precision of MTM’s parts, the logistical challenges of large-format machining — all are impressive to witness here. The TMAC system’s ability to get more productivity out of each machine clearly contributes to MTM’s on-time delivery success. But as Bowling notes, having a mature and risk-free process implemented via the ERP system is essential for automating and managing unattended machining processes on the shop floor. The software is the company’s central nervous system — so critical that the sizable IT staff here includes two, full-time, full-stack programmers.

Bowling says that linking CNC programs directly to the ERP ensures that each machine operates with the correct settings, avoiding costly errors. “The ERP system automates the transition between different machining steps,” he says. “When you reach step one, step two, or step three, we know that the correct program is being used and that we’ve maintained the integrity of the production process.” This is critical for the overnight shifts when staffing is reduced.

“You might not expect necessarily a large-format manufacturing company to be as software driven as we are,” Bowling says. “But the result is that there’s no guesswork involved in the promises that we make to the customer. When we sign on for a contract, if we say something’s going to take six months to produce — and by the nature of our parts, some do take a long time — then we have the tools to make sure that we’re on track for that.”

The upshot is that Major Tool’s ability to integrate planning data across the company has proven to be indispensable for scheduling and operational efficiency here. It is a comprehensive approach that ensures every step, from material arrival to final inspection, is meticulously documented and controlled.

Source | Airbus, HRC

On Aug. 29 in Chengdu, China, the Airbus Lifecycle Services Center (ALSC) and HRC (Shanghai, China) established a strategic partnership to launch China’s first aircraft dismantling and recycling project. This initiative, signed by Brian Agnew, general manager of ALSC, and Zhiyong Wang, general manager of carbon neutrality at HRC, represents a step forward in promoting sustainable aviation practices in the region.

The collaboration combines HRC’s expertise in the full life cycle of carbon fiber with ALSC’s position as an aircraft recycling project operated by an aircraft manufacturer. Together, the partners aim to achieve high material recovery rates, reduce operational costs and minimize environmental impact.

HRC is responsible for recycling and reusing aircraft carbon fiber composites to extend their life cycle and maximize resource reutilization. By turning the wastes into regenerated intermediate carbon fiber and end-production products with low emissions, high physical performance and added value, HRC bolsters the circular economy in aviation.

The first project under this partnership involves the dismantling of an A330-200 aircraft.

EFlyer 2 mold. Source | Bye Aerospace

Bye Aerospace (Denver, Colo., U.S.) has officially launched the construction of its all-electric aircraft, the eFlyer 2. This project aims to fabricate and assemble an all-composite structure, validate approved design plans and establish innovative production processes. The outcome will be a full-scale aircraft that will undergo extensive aerodynamic testing, derisking the remaining certification compliance tasks. This milestone aircraft, Serial Number 00001, is being assembled at Bye Aerospace's facilities at Centennial Airport, located in Denver, Colorado.

According to the company, the eFlyer 2 is specifically engineered to meet the demands of the aviation training market, with a clean-sheet design that maximizes aerodynamic efficiency and incorporates lightweight composites. The aircraft is expected to reduce operating costs by up to 80% and cut maintenance requirements by up to 75%, while offering quiet, sustainable aviation — making it an ideal choice for flight schools and surrounding communities.

“The commencement of the eFlyer 2 build marks a historic moment for our company and the aviation industry as a whole,” notes Rod Zastrow, CEO of Bye Aerospace. “This clean-sheet design allows us to deliver an aircraft that not only meets but exceeds the performance and efficiency expectations of our aviation clients.”

It was announced in February 2023 that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved the electric aircraft as eligible for certification under Part 23, enabling the Denver-based OEM to start certification testing. In addition, in September 2023, the FAA accepted the Functional Hazard Analysis for the eFlyer 2.

3D printed (3DP) tool. Source | Airtech, Jamco

Jamco America Inc. (Everett, Wash., U.S.), an interior products supplier and turnkey aircraft interiors integrator in the aerospace industry, announces its partnership with Airtech Advanced Materials Group (Huntington Beach, Calif., U.S.) to advance aerospace manufacturing through 3D printing (3DP) tool recycling. The partnership will reportedly enable faster production of finished goods with reduced risk and cost and a lower total carbon footprint. 

The partnership between Jamco and Airtech began in 2006, with Airtech supplying composite manufacturing consumables and supporting materials to Jamco. In 2021, the collaboration expanded into large-format additive manufacturing (LFAM) tooling. Jamco’s goal is to explore LFAM technology for high-temperature applications, aiming to overcome the limitations of traditional composite layup tooling. According to the company, these efforts promise to significantly reduce lead times and supply chain delays while enhancing performance and reducing the risk of defects in finished parts.

The LFAM molds produced by Airtech use its Dahltram I350CF thermoplastic resin, a fully recyclable polymer. Depending on the application’s requirements, Airtech can grind up and compound this resin into a blended or 100% recycled formulation. Ongoing testing at Airtech aims to validate the best blended formulations for high-performance applications such as aerospace tooling and molds.

Through this partnership, Jamco and Airtech aim to revolutionize aerospace manufacturing and enhance product quality, reduce lead times, lower production costs and minimize environmental impact, thus ensuring greater sustainability, cost-effectiveness and safety across the industry.

Source: JuggerBot 3D

JuggerBot 3D, an industrial 3D printer OEM, has selected key technical partners for a hybrid additive manufacturing (AM) project through the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Mississippi State University’s Advanced Composites Institute (ACI) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have been chosen as technical partners for their expertise in fused granulate fabrication (FGF) and direct ink writing (DIW) composite manufacturing.

These organizations will collaborate to develop reliable process parameters for consistent material deposition, demonstrating the steps needed to produce production tooling for composite manufacturing.

This $4-million congressional award was announced in February 2024 and is being funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Manufacturing Technology (OSD(R&E)). The project focus is to advance large-scale hybrid additive manufacturing (AM) in order to enable the production of faster, less expensive tooling which is critical to the defense and aerospace industry.

The project involves the development of a system integrating two-part resin and pellet-fed material extrusion technologies, processing performance-grade thermoplastic polymers and advanced thermoset resin inks, including epoxies and vinyl esters. The system is designed to reach build volumes of 360 ft.³, showcasing critical process controls synonymous with JuggerBot 3D’s additive technologies. Throughout the project, which is set to be completed in December 2025, several phases of technology development will occur — from system development to comprehensive modeling and advanced toolpath development.

As the project progresses into system development and validation, JuggerBot 3D says the expertise of ORNL and MSU-ACI is crucial. ORNL is known for advancing innovative AM technologies, including FGF (aka pellet-fed 3D printing), and has been selected to support advanced toolpath Collaborative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) generation software. This selection builds on previous CRADAs which focused on sophisticated AM processing, such as JuggerBot 3D’s Bead Characterization System (BCS) and other competencies found in the JuggerBot 3D Material Card.

In an industry first, ORNL and JuggerBot 3D will enhance slicing software and printer hardware to process thermosets independently and simultaneously with thermoplastics. As a result, JuggerBot 3D will also develop and integrate thermoset Material Cards.

MSU-ACI is known for pioneering composite technologies and will lead system-level validation. This process is said to include rigorous material testing and assessment (MT&A) to ensure the effectiveness of the established process parameters for both thermoset and thermoplastic materials.

“In an industry that demands rapid results, transitioning from a six-figure investment in a mold that takes 12-18 months to produce to one that takes only a few weeks at a fraction of the cost is a significant enabler across the U.S.,” says Hunter Watts, MSU-ACI research engineer. “We are excited about the opportunity to partner with JuggerBot 3D and everyone involved to accelerate not only this technology but also the adoption of this groundbreaking manufacturing process.”

While technical development is key, the project’s true value lies in its long-term impact. By accelerating production timelines for limited-life aircraft and reducing costs, this initiative will empower the aerospace and defense sectors to meet evolving demands with unmatched precision. By enhancing manufacturing capabilities, these innovations will support the warfighter at the speed of battle, offering parts designed to withstand high duress. As a result, the technologies developed and the data collected will enable the additive production of medium and large-scale aerospace tools and secondary structural components.

Kineco Ltd. (Kineco, Goa, India)announces the acquisition of an additional 49% equity stake in its subsidiary, Kineco Kaman Composites India Private Ltd. (Kineco Kaman), from the U.S.-based joint venture (JV) partner Kaman Aerospace Group Inc (Bloomfield, Conn., U.S.). This transaction makes Kineco Kaman a wholly owned subsidiary of Kineco Ltd.

Kineco Kaman was founded in 2012 as a JV between Kineco and Kaman Aerospace, with the aim of addressing the growing demand for advanced composite parts and subassemblies for the aerospace and defense industries in India and globally. Over the past 12 years, the company has built its reputation for manufacturing complex composite components and subassemblies used in aerospace, defense and space applications. The company has also received multiple Gold Supplier awards for quality excellence and 100% on-time delivery from global OEMs. Kineco Kaman has also been a preferred supplier for major Indian defense and space programs, including ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 and Gaganyaan missions, as well as defense helicopter and combat aircraft programs.

“In over a decade of partnership with Kaman, we built a company that has demonstrated global competitiveness and credibility in the aerospace industry. We are grateful to Kaman Aerospace for its support and trust throughout the years,” says Shekhar Sardessai, founder, chairman and managing director of Kineco Ltd.

Sardessai also emphasizes that this acquisition aligns with the company’s focus on deepening its presence in the aerospace and defense sector, and will be value accretive to the company in the medium to long term. He announced that Kineco plans to integrate all of its aerospace and defense businesses into a single SBU, branded as Kineco Aerospace & Defense. This unification strategy, coupled with full control of the SBU, positions Kineco to pursue more ambitious growth targets.

New FibreLine installation with industrial robot arms. Source (All Images) | Loop Technology

Loop Technology (Dorchester, U.K.) has announced the construction of its latest FibreLine system — an end-to-end automated composite preforming for smaller parts and components — at the Loop Technology Centre. This particular configuration offers a material deposition rate of up to 200 kilograms/hour. Its high rate facilitates a wide range of advantages from streamlining downstream assembly to reducing factory footprint.

The company achieved its installation with the delivery of a 21-meter Güdel (Langenthal, Switzerland) TrackMotion Floor-6 (TMF-6), which can move robots weighing up to 6 tons, in April this year, a new Zünd (Altstättden, Switzerland) cutting table, the building of FibreForm — Loop Technology’s 3D composite pick-and-place end effector that is central to FibreLine — and delivery of two FANUC (Rochester Hills, Mich., U.S.) M-2000iAs, the 1700L and 900L, in May. 

Delivery of FANUC robots.

On May 17^th, the M2000ia 1700L was the first to arrive, weighing 12.5 tonnes, with almost 4.7 meters of reach and a 1.7-tonne payload capacity. The 900L was installed second — it offers the same reach as the 1700L with a payload capacity of 900 kilograms.

Both robots provide the capability needed for FibreLine, particularly FibreForm. According to Loop Technology, the composite aerostructures that will be manufactured with the FibreLine system are large and require highly flexible, long-reach robots. Mounted on the TMF-6 track, they will reportedly enable unfettered access to the cell area in order to perform necessary inspection and deposition activities.

Loop Technology developed the timelapse video below of FibreLine’s installation.

Robotic winding of dry carbon fiber is used to make the central tube for a medium-class satellite (inset at right) and the Vega-C interstage 2/3 (left), reportedly the first resin-infused launcher structure to fly in a European Space Agency (ESA) mission. Source (All Images) | CIRA and ESA for Vega-C image

Anisogrid carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) lattice shells are one of the most efficient designs to minimize mass in heavily loaded structures for space vehicles. They comprise a regular pattern of intersecting hoop and helical ribs (with or without a thin outer skin), providing both in-plane (membrane) and out-of-plane (bending) stiffness, essential to prevent buckling under high compressive loads.

In contrast, a homogeneous layered shell construction would provide in-plane stiffness but poor bending properties. This is why such shells are typically supported by additional structural elements, such as stringers, or use sandwich construction to improve stiffness. But this also adds weight, complexity and cost.

CFRP anisogrids have been made using wet filament winding since the 1980s and with automated placement of prepreg since the 1990s. However, wet winding — an open process using liquid resin — lacks the process control and precise resin content of prepreg. Meanwhile, placement of prepreg tapes results in buildup and fiber distortion in the nodes and requires dummy helical patterns to move between adjacent hoops. One solution is cutting the tows between hoops and selected nodes, the latter used by NLR to produce an orthogrid in the ACASIAS project (see “Integrating antennas into composite aerostructures”). However, this also interrupts the load path, reducing strength and increasing mass.

Over the last two decades, Centro Italiano Ricerche Aerospaziali (CIRA, Capua, Italy) has refined its design and manufacturing of CFRP lattice structures, moving through prepreg and wet winding as well as improved design analysis. By 2009, it had patented a “parallel winding” technique with dry fiber followed by resin infusion. The result is an interlaced anisogrid with uncut, continuous tows and without dummy helical patterns.

This process developed by CIRA is clean, extremely efficient and scalable, ranging from very thin to very thick ribs (cross-section of 4-400 square millimeters). It has been used by Avio (Colleferro, Italy) to produce the interstage 2/3 for the Vega-C space launcher, first flown in 2022. Since then, CIRA has further demonstrated this method’s scalability, producing a large central tube and long instrument boom for satellites and a conical payload adapter for launchers.

Parallel winding

“So many methods have been proposed in the last decades to manufacture interlaced lattice structures,” says Dr. Felice De Nicola, head of the CIRA Composite Prototyping Lab. “We were looking to produce something which was integral, simple and low cost. We also wanted to overcome the problems with wet winding and prepreg by using resin infusion, which is a very simple technique.”

 

CIRA’s patented parallel winding process uses robotic winding to create helical ribs while a creel simultaneously interlaces hoop ribs (and wider “black rings” for attachments) without cut tows or dummy helical patterns. Resulting anisogrids have at least 20% less mass and better compressive strength than composite sandwich or skin-stringer construction for the same structures.

CIRA creates the anisogrid’s interlaced hoop and helical ribs using a robotic cell, which implements a refined version of filament winding in conjunction with a patented approach called parallel winding. “We use helical winding around pins simultaneously with hoop winding applied in parallel from a creel off to the side of the rotating mandrel,” says De Nicola. “The dry fiber ribs are thus interlaced using a very simple setup, which can guarantee fiber straightness, but is also a reasonably fast process.”

This also eliminates the need to cut tows or use a dummy helical rib pattern. “If you have just one deposition head, like in filament winding,” he explains, “then you must have additional helicals to enable moving between adjacent hoop paths. But because we wind the hoops by a separate mechanism, we avoid this issue.”

Silicone rubber sheets, metal pins for winding

The winding is applied to a metal mandrel covered with a silicone rubber “carpet” or sheet. De Nicola notes this eliminates the need to place hundreds of triangular or hexagonal Teflon or silicone inserts, an approach proposed by other groups. “In contrast, our production of the reusable sheet is simple, using a well-proven technique,” he says. “We use liquid silicone casting on a machined aluminum mold. The resulting shape provides a sheet mold with grooves into which the dry fibers are placed.”

 

CIRA uses liquid silicone casting to create sheet molds (top) that are wrapped around an aluminum mandrel, providing grooves into which dry fibers are wound for the antenna boom shown here. Metal pins in the mandrel at both ends of the sheet enable helical windings (applied by robot at left side of right image) without cutting fibers. Note: Hoop ribs are being wound from a creel off to the right of the mandrel.

More recently, the group used 3D printing of a small modular element to avoid a large machined mold. “In this case, the mold was very simple — just a sector of a cylinder,” says De Nicola. “We then cast multiple sectors and joined them by using the same liquid silicone rubber, creating a single cylindrical sheet mold.” He concedes that this approach requires ≈100 kilograms of silicone rubber for medium-sized structures, “which is not cheap; but it is more cost-effective than making and placing hundreds of silicone rubber triangular inserts.”

CIRA’s use of pins in the helical winding is also an adaptation of established techniques. “Pins have long been used in filament winding,” says De Nicola. For example, they enable winding around an open-ended structure without cutting fibers. “In our case, they are concentrated just where the ribs are. So, we only have a small number of pins on the mandrel to the left and right edge of the silicone rubber sheet. It’s quite simple. But you do need to have maneuverability in the robotic head to wrap around the pins. Once winding, infusion and curing are complete, we simply unscrew the pins from the mandrel.”

Materials and resin infusion

The completed dry preform is then vacuum bagged and infused with resin. “We typically use intermediate modulus carbon fiber,” says De Nicola. “But we’ve also used high modulus for booms and applications where the stiffness and thermal expansion were key factors.” Suppliers have included Toray (Tokyo, Japan), Hexcel (Stamford, Conn., U.S.) and Teijin (Tokyo, Japan). He notes dry fibers are more fragile than prepreg. “So, the winding system must manage the fibers properly and maintain tension without damage during application.”

Regarding resins, CIRA researcher and materials specialist Dr. Gionvangiuseppe Giusto explains that sufficiently low viscosity (e.g., ≈200 centipoise) is needed to fully infiltrate the fibers especially at the nodes where the ribs cross. “We usually prefer epoxy systems,” he says, “but for specific applications, such as satellite booms where temperatures range from -160 to 160°C, we have used cyanate ester.” CIRA has also used resins from Huntsman (The Woodlands, Texas, U.S.), Syensqo (previously Solvay, Heanor, U.K.) and Hexcel. “We consider a range of resins and then select based on T_g and process parameter specifications,” says Giusto. “We typically start with resins already qualified for space applications, but in certain applications, we have proposed an epoxy used mainly in automotive applications.”

During infusion, a standard distribution medium facilitates resin flow throughout the preform. “We use commercially available polymer mesh products from Airtech [Huntington Beach, Calif. U.S.],” says Giusto, “usually formulated for high temperature.”

Paola Spena, materials and process specialist at CIRA, notes that the resin runs quite fast between the nodes where the fiber volume fraction is lower. “It then slows at the nodes, which require a little bit more time to be filled. But the flow medium helps, and this is an advantage of resin infusion compared to resin transfer molding [RTM] processes. In RTM, you are using pressure to push the resin front horizontally through the preform, which can take a long time for a large part. To reduce this, RTM often uses multiple resin injection inlets. In vacuum-assisted infusion, the flow medium not only speeds the resin across the preform but also helps it to penetrate in the Z direction or thickness. So, we use just one resin inlet.”

“We have that inlet at the bottom of the structure and learned that vertical infusion is the simplest for us,” adds Giusto. “Infusing against gravity facilitates removal of air, volatiles and bubbles that otherwise could be entrapped. It also almost unites the flow fronts across the ribs and the flow proceeds rather evenly — so, we no longer use flow modeling. With the distribution medium, the resin quickly permeates the ribs, even when using a relatively thicker skin, such as in the Vega-C interstage, for example.”

“It is quite easy for us to infuse these anisogrids,” says Spena, “even a structure that is 3-4 meters tall. Infusion takes about 1 hour for a 2-meter-diameter, 2.5-meter-tall satellite central tube, for example. And our preforms are sort of optimized for this process. Obviously, the infusion flow will be a little bit slower through the higher mass of fiber in a 2-millimeter-thick skin, but it also produces a very good, compacted laminate.”

CIRA prepares a conical adapter for oven cure after resin infusion.

After infusion is complete, CIRA uses an autoclave or oven for cure depending on the resin and part requirements. “We have used out-of-autoclave [OOA] curing for boom and satellite central tube structures,” says De Nicola. “The idea is to get away from the autoclave and have a more cost-effective process. And we achieved a regular cross-section along the ribs and also through the nodal regions, without distortions.”

This was important to demonstrate that CIRA’s approach can indeed produce high-performance structures, he says, “and yet maintain simplicity, because we were looking for efficiency — not only in terms of mass, but in terms of process as well. We believe the Vega-C interstage was the first heavily loaded launcher structure to be made by liquid infusion for an ESA project in Europe.”

Lower fiber volume and mass, higher compressive strength

CIRA’s approach provides a complete preform with interlaced ribs, but the fiber volume fraction in the ribs is lower than conventional aerospace laminates. “We achieve a fiber volume fraction of 34-40%, compared to the more standard 50% plus,” says Dr. Giovanni Totaro, CIRA researcher and the primary design engineer for this technology. “Ours is lower, but this allows more resin which then boosts specific compressive properties. Meanwhile, our mass density will be about 1,400 kilograms/cubic meter versus 1,600 kilograms/cubic meter for standard constructions. The drawback is that we don’t have the maximum stiffness because the fiber volume fraction is not maximized. But we do maximize specific compressive strength, which then helps us to to reach an optimized structure under compressive loads.”

“This emphasizes the efficiency of our approach in applications that are driven by strength and buckling,” says Totaro. “In addition, the anisogrid’s unidirectional [UD] ribs exhibit a very low coefficient of thermal expansion [CTE] in the longitudinal direction driven by the carbon fiber, which offers benefits for applications demanding dimensional stability in extreme thermal conditions, such as antenna booms.”

“The anisogrids we are producing are cylinders and cones that are heavily loaded in compression, and their design is driven by buckling,” says De Nicola. “For the situation in which the design is completely dominated by stiffness, our anisogrid structures are still competitive but they probably won’t be the most efficient design.” But Totaro notes that CIRA also achieves at least 20% lower mass compared to composites made with skin-stringer or sandwich constructions for the same structures.

More efficient anisogrid optimization

CIRA has not only developed an approach for more efficient anisogrid manufacturing, but also a more efficient method for optimized designs. Led by Totaro, CIRA began by looking at specific models for local in-plane buckling. “This occurs, for example, in the larger radius of conical structures. Conventional out-of-plane buckling occurs in the transverse or radial direction,” he explains. “The latter was already described, but in-plane buckling was only described with a simplified approach. We thus developed and validated more accurate in-plane modeling which provides more structurally efficient solutions.”

He also ended up with a more efficient overall design process. “Anisogrid structures may use a wide range of design configurations,” says Totaro. “We needed to explore all the lattice configurations for a certain geometry — e.g., a cylinder or cone — and for each, identify the best cross-section of ribs to minimize the lattice mass without local buckling. We also had to meet global buckling requirements as well as overall structural stiffness and strength requirements.” The resulting process comprises three main phases.

 

CIRA’s three-phase design optimization method explores anisogrid parameters (top) to downselect best configurations for simple finite element (FE) analysis, which outputs the best configuration for final 3D CAD stress analysis (bottom).

1. Parametric exploration. Each possible design configuration for a cylinder or cone is defined by a certain number of regularly spaced hoop and helical ribs. This also defines the helical angle, which is the fundamental design variable. Each configuration is further characterized by the thickness and width of hoop and helical ribs.

“We have a sort of parametric exploration of design configurations, and for each configuration, we identify minimal mass options,” says Totaro. “Basically, we perform a large parametric study to identify the whole design space. Because we are dealing not with finite element [FE] models in this phase, but just with equations and gradient-based optimization algorithms, we can get the overall picture of the possible configurations in a few minutes.”

This analysis uses a constrained minimization routine in the Matlab Optimization Toolbox software (MathWorks, Natick, Mass., U.S.). The objective is to minimize the grid shell mass, and constraint equations are represented by analytical models, which approximate the stiffness properties and the various failure mechanisms of the structure. Each configuration is separately optimized. “Specific analytical models are then formulated for the anisogrid’s system of hexagonal and triangular cells, allowing us to identify buckling mechanisms and understand the role of hoop ribs which was earlier underrated,” says Totaro. “We also analytically formulated pocket buckling of the skin, which occurs in the hexagonal pockets and will propagate along the structure. It also drives the optimal stacking sequence of a skin laminate.” These models are typically formulated using Maple software (Maplesoft, Waterloo, ON, Canada).”

2. Simple FE models. Once best candidates for minimum mass are identified, they are transformed into FE models made of simple 1D “bar” elements for the ribs and 2D elements for the skin, if one is being used. “These can be automatically generated in a few minutes,” says Totaro. “The goal is just to verify that the expected stiffness and strength performance is reasonably achieved with the possibility to easily adjust the cross-section of ribs or the stacking sequence of the skin, and finally to refine the solution.” This process is relatively quick, based on specific routines which builds the input file for the Nastran solver (available from multiple suppliers). “We then conduct the more refined analyses and downselect again,” says Totaro. “This phase ends with the final configuration and cross-section of ribs.”

3. Final 3D models. This final design is then transformed into a 3D CAD model, which is the fundamental input for production of the tooling and defining the manufacturing process (mandrel, molds, interfaces) as well as the construction of the final 3D FE model for the detailed stress-strain analysis. In this final phase, all of the material properties and the additional structural elements that were initially excluded from the previous simplified versions are brought into the FE model and analyzed. 

Thus, high-computation time analyses are minimized and reached quickly by a simplified downselection process, but one that still considers the most important performance factors for anisogrid structural behavior.

“This years-long development by Totaro has provided CIRA with a very good knowledge of analytical models for anisogrids,” says De Nicola, “but also a very fast process. The models are sophisticated, but also in semi-analytical forms, so software can return initial optimization results quickly and we can then refine these using standard FE methods. From the beginning, we strove to include real knowledge of the behavior of the anisogrid structure, which isn’t typical. Instead of having a general model with general elements to be optimized, we have a specific knowledge of the lattice structure behavior. Again, this leads us to new designs that offer new opportunities for lightweight and efficiency.”

Demolding

After resin infusion and cure, extracting the mandrel is typically not an issue for conical structures or large cylinders, says De Nicola. “We can have difficulty with long, thin cylinders like booms. For these, you need a mechanical extractor device to remove the mandrel, but it is usually extracted without applying high loads. For longer structures, where the friction is higher, we use a Teflon layer between the silicone rubber mold sheet and the aluminum mandrel.”

The aluminum mandrel’s expansion during cure helps to consolidate the part and its contraction during cooling also helps demolding. De Nicola notes the silicone rubber sheet tool on top of the mandrel has an even higher thermal expansion, and that also compacts the material during cure. “We factor in that expansion to correctly dimension the composite ribs.”

Finished CFRP anisogrid boom structure.

Once the parts are extracted, the peel ply is removed to reveal high-quality finished surfaces. For composite anisogrids without a skin, the cured resin film in the spaces between ribs is easily removed. “It is very thin — a few tenths of a millimeter,” says De Nicola, “and it’s distributed all over the surface, but you can cut or knock it away in minutes.”

Increasing number of applications

CIRA has demonstrated the capability and versatility of its design and manufacturing approach, from large to small structures. The 2.4-meter diameter, 2-meter-long interstage 2/3 for the Vega-C space launcher was a key demonstration. “It took 3 weeks for us to wind the very first Vega-C interstage prototype,” says De Nicola. “We then worked with Avio to mature and speed up the process, and after successfully completing testing in 2018 — including bending stiffness evaluation and compression loading up to 750 tons — Avio then produced the certification parts.”

Vega-C first flew in 2022 but missions were paused after the second launch, due to a failure in the nozzle of the Zefiro motor. Vega-C is scheduled to resume flights later in 2024 with an intense program of launches for 2025.

CIRA’s use of robotic winding, resin infusion and out-of-autoclave oven cure has been demonstrated for an increasing number of structures including conical payload adapters (top), cylindrical space structures (center) and now a broader range of structures for future aerospace applications (bottom).

CIRA has also produced a 0.64-meter-long, 1.4-meter-diameter conical adapter that weighs only 7 kilograms — 30% less than the reference CFRP solution — yet can withstand 80 tons of compressive load. The structure includes 70 fiber bragg grating (FBG) sensors embedded in the helical ribs during the deposition process to show the feasiblity of integrating a structural health monitoring (SHM) and sensing system. “This system worked very well during the mechanical testing campaign,” says Totaro, “providing a fine coverage of strain sensors used to better understand the structural behavior and to validate the detailed FE model of the structure.”

Another application, CIRA’s 1.2-meter-diameter, 2.7-meter-long prototype of a central tube main structure for a medium-class satellite, not only balanced stiffness and strength requirements but achieved a specific mass <14 kilograms/meter — a 20% savings versus traditional composite shell structures.

Wound in the hoop direction, black rings are wider than hoop ribs and provide attachment points for bolted connections.

Here, parallel winding was used to integrate “black rings” — hoop ribs with larger width and fibers in two directions to provide bearing strength for bolted connections. “These rings are typically introduced along the edges of shell structures as interfaces with flanges for adjacent components,” says Totaro. “They are also integrated into the structure wherever local reinforcement for attachment points are needed. We have the flexibility to integrate black rings with the same height (radial thickness) as the ribs, or with reduced depth (e.g., half radial thickness or less) in order to save mass.”

CIRA’s most recent demonstration is a slender 120-millimeter-diameter, 1.5-meter-long CFRP anisogrid boom segment for a deployable satellite antenna. Its design was dominated by requirements for thermal dimensional stability and a high stiffness-to-weight ratio. CIRA used thin ribs — cross-section of 1.5 × 3.6 millimeters — achieving a specific mass of 0.5 kilograms/meter. “To achieve a similar mass with a homogeneous skin,” notes Totaro, “the laminate thickness would need to be 1.0 millimeter or less, making it more difficult to achieve the ideal stacking sequence to meet combined stiffness, CTE and strength requirements.”

“Again, there is no distortion in the UD fiber paths and no buildup at the nodes because we use dry fiber instead of prepreg,” says De Nicola. “The interlacing also results in structures that are extremely damage tolerant for their mass. The combination of our more efficient design method with our manufacturing approach makes composite anisogrids a more practical solution, not just for space vehicles but for a much broader range of aerospace applications. We see a huge potential and are continuing development toward even lighter and more efficient composite structures in the future.”

The complexity of aerospace parts has often necessitated the use of advanced machine tools such as five-axis machines and mill-turns. Recently, additive manufacturing has made waves in the field for its ability to create parts physically impossible to make through subtractive machining.

Aerospace manufacturing is a high-precision, high-tolerance market, one which requires up-to-date equipment and processes to meet customer requirements. Five-axis machines, multitasking machines and precision grinders are all common in this market, and IMTS 2024 will offer a wide selection of all these machine types. The same goes for the process control software that helps shops meet traceability requirements and the machine monitoring that enables them to achieve significant process optimization.

Beyond equipment on the show floor, IMTS programming includes several talks about current challenges and opportunities in the market, with sessions centered on materials, tooling, machining strategies and more.

Nick Pflugh, chief commercial officer at 6K Additive, will center his talk, “Alleviating Supply Chain Pressures for Titanium and Nickel Production for Aerospace, Defense and Automotive Industries” on US policies and grants that companies can use to pursue new ways of recycling rare earth metals critical to aerospace. In particular, Pflugh will focus on methods for producing recycled titanium and nickel ingots and additive manufacturing-ready powder. Attendees can learn more at the talk, which takes place Wednesday, September 11, from 1:15 – 2:10 p.m. in W194-A as part of the IMTS Conference.

Brad Lemke, VP of application and services at Nikon SLM Solutions, will also focus on additive manufacturing in aerospace, but from the angle of machines. His talk, “Unleashing Additive Manufacturing's Power: Large Format Machines and Productivity Redefining Serial Production,” will discuss and demonstrate how large-format laser powder bed fusion can provide a flexible, reliable means of serial production in high-tolerance markets. This talk is part of the Succeeding with Powder Bed Fusion workshop, and will take place Wednesday September 11 from 2:15 – 2:45 p.m. in W194-B.

For a third perspective on additive manufacturing’s usefulness to aerospace manufacturers, Mark Blosser, director of technology solutions at Ceratizit USA, will speak about using AM to produce tooling for machining parts in the aerospace, automotive and medical industries. His talk, “Revolutionizing Tool Design and Performance: The Role of Additive 3D Printing,” will discuss the possibilities of additive tool design in general before focusing on the specific case of the company’s MaxiMill 211-DC, which Ceratizit says includes several additively produced features that improve its performance in aerospace applications. Blosser’s talk takes place Tuesday, September 10 from 10:00 – 10:55 a.m. in W193-B as part of the IMTS Conference.

Sumitomo Electric Carbide will also discuss tooling, with Applications Engineer George Schendal discussing NCB100 binderless CBN, a cutting tool material it says will be able to improve performance, tool life and finish in difficult-to-cut materials. In particular, the company points out titanium machining as a prime candidate for tools made of the materials, with more details to come in “Cut Titanium 10 Times Faster: Binderless CBN.” This talk will take place Wednesday, September 11 from 10:00 – 10:55 a.m. in room W193-B as part of the IMTS Conference.

To learn more about advances in machine tools well-suited to aerospace manufacturing, Mazak’s “Multi-Tasking Continues to Elevate Manufacturing” will address recent refinements in multitasking machines, as well as the benefits they can have on productivity. Chuck Birkle, vice president of sales and marketing at Mazak, and Jared Leick, corporate accounts & product group manager at Mazak, will lead this discussion on Wednesday, September 11^th, from 2:15 – 3:10 p.m. in room W192-B as part of the IMTS Conference.

Wires coated with Mitsui’s Aurum. Source: Mitsui

A thermoplastics polyimide (PI) has been tested by NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, that demonstrates interesting properties, making it a candidate for the electrical wiring requirements for future aerospace transportation technologies. Called Aurum, the material is a semicrystalline PI suitable for powder coating, injection molding and extrusion coating, with the highest glass transition temperature in its class. The extrusion processing of Aurum for wire insulation is said to be highly economical, enabling extremely thin layers and offering high elasticity as well as good compatibility with cooling and lubricating oils.

Produced by Mitsui Chemicals, Aurum PI is sold by BARplast in the U.S., which supplied the material to NASA, and Bieglo in Europe. It boasts one of the highest glass transition temperature (Tg) of 473°F (245°C) of any commercially available thermoplastics. (BARplast is a subsidiary of Germany-based Bieglo Group, a distributor of high -performance plastics serving a wide range of industries, including aerospace, automotive and electrical.)

In a NASA white paper presented at the May 2024 SAMPE conference, researchers pointed out there are “electrical wiring requirements for next-generation air and space transportation engineering designs, with continuous operation temperature requirements of up to 392°F (200°C).” The objective of the study was to assess the potential of thermoplastic polyimides as a high-temperature electrical insulation solution. Furthermore, the white paper highlighted the need for “thermoplastic electrical insulation materials systems to improve thermal management in high power density electric motors.” It also stated that “a melt processable PI with high service temperatures is of interest as an electrical insulation candidate material.” Additionally, melt processing enables facile dispersion of fillers within a polymer matrix which can impart additional functionality such as thermal conductivity, according to the researchers.

(left to right) Jason Saly, NCDMM director of IT and Cloud Services, and Joey DiNinno, NCDMM IT security specialist. Source: NCDMM

The National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) recently introduced the enhanced features of the America Makes Core platform and unveiled its latest data dissemination tool, Roadmapper 2.0. America Makes’ CORE is a secure online platform designed to help members identify, access and utilize intellectual capital assets that align with its Technology Development Roadmap. Complementing CORE, Roadmapper 2.0 is NCDMM’s newest tool for sharing interactive, digital road maps.

Members of America Makes from industry, academia, government and nongovernment agencies as well as workforce and economic development organizations can utilize the enhanced platform to facilitate projects aimed at innovating and accelerating additive manufacturing (AM) to increase the nation’s global manufacturing competitiveness.

“CORE is the centerpiece of America Makes’ larger digital presence. It contains the collective knowledge gained from over $500 million in funded research efforts as part of America Makes’ public-private partnership with Manufacturing USA,” says Jason Saly, NCDMM director of IT and Cloud Services. This secure platform allows us to search through a vast array of files, deliverables and metadata accumulated over the years.”

Since its launch last year, CORE has undergone several updates, including a mobile-friendly version to enhance usability and a robust custom reporting feature with an advanced filtering system, enabling the creation of detailed reports.

“Our IT team has also streamlined the process for members to access, edit and contribute to project deliverables,” Saly adds. “We’ve also introduced the capability to upload artifacts and link them directly to existing deliverables from other projects, a function previously unavailable.”

Looking ahead, the IT team plans to further enhance CORE’s capabilities, including collaborating with Penn State University to support large file uploads while minimizing the need for large dataset downloads. Members can anticipate new features such as the ability to follow specific projects and receive updates when new information is added. Additionally, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) search functionality will be developed, leveraging CORE’s extensive library of metadata, files and deliverables.

“Generative AI can uncover unexpected connections between seemingly unrelated topics, providing insights that traditional searches might miss,” Saly explains. “Imagine a search engine that truly ‘understands’ additive processes, manufacturing, material design and even past behaviors. Generative AI brings us closer to that reality.”

Roadmapper 2.0 was officially introduced to America Makes members and partners at the 2024 Members Meeting and Exchange (MMX) on August 7 in Youngstown, Ohio. This new tool enables companies and organizations to collaborate in a user-friendly environment, monitor project progress in real time and identify needs to ensure meaningful contributions.

Joe Veranese, vice president and chief information officer at NCDMM, notes that this tool was designed to make the roadmapping process dynamic and actionable. “Roadmaps will no longer be just case studies collecting dust on a shelf,” Veranese says. “This tool enables users to actively explore and analyze the targeted landscape, truly operationalizing data in ways that were previously impossible.”

Described as a strategic compass, Roadmapper 2.0 guides stakeholders toward their desired outcomes. “Unlike detailed project plans, Roadmapper offers a high-level overview of strategic initiatives, avoiding unnecessary details,” says Joey DiNinno, NCDMM IT security specialist. “We developed Roadmapper 2.0 from scratch, using modern web technologies and user interface elements. Its lightning-fast interface, integrated with Member Portal credentials, brings us closer to our vision of a unified web platform for all NCDMM and America Makes tools.”

The organization says that one of the key features of Roadmapper 2.0 is its seamless integration with CORE, enabling members to map out entire project needs within a single platform. Users can link individual or multiple requirements from CORE deliverables to Roadmapper. Overall, Roadmapper 2.0 serves as a communication tool for disseminating future work plans, aligning stakeholders and cross-functional teams and enhancing understanding of resource utilization.

“This is just the beginning of what’s possible with Roadmapper 2.0,” DiNinno says. “Its design, organizational capabilities and flexibility will ultimately lead to greater efficiency in project planning, teaming and customization of road maps to achieve an organization’s goals.”

America Makes is the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute. As the national accelerator for AM, America Makes is the nation’s leading and collaborative partner in AM and 3DP technology research, discovery, creation and innovation. Structured as a public-private partnership with member organizations, it is working together to innovate and accelerate AM to increase our nation’s global manufacturing competitiveness.

NCDMM focuses on delivering innovative and collaborative manufacturing solutions that enhance the nation’s workforce and economic competitiveness. The organization has extensive knowledge and depth in commercial and defense manufacturing areas to continually innovate, improve and advance manufacturing technologies and methodologies. Its team specializes in identifying the needs, players, technologies and processes to attain optimal solutions for its customers. It manages America Makes, AMARII, AMIIC and El Paso Makes, and is a subsidiary of the Manufacturing Technology Deployment Group Inc.

GTL’s blended hybrid laminate (BHL) composite tubing and lightweight dewar tank for liquid hydrogen (LH₂). Source | Gloyer Taylor Laboratories (GTL)

Gloyer-Taylor Laboratories Inc. (GTL, Tullahoma, Tenn. U.S.), an aerospace engineering research and development company, has announced breakthrough results in its Blended Hybrid Laminate (BHL) composite technology for use with cryogenic liquid hydrogen (LH₂) in tubes, pipes and transfer lines. LH₂ is a key fuel used for space launchers but is also being developed by Airbus and other aircraft OEMs for zero-emission aviation.

When transferring LH₂ from a delivery or storage tank to vehicle tanks, NASA and other entities have reported high losses due to boil-off of the cryogenic liquid to vapor. These losses can be as much as 50-70% of the fuel being transferred, which results in lengthy cooldown times required to avoid such boil-off. This poses significant challenges to repeated refueling as vehicles sit on the launch pad, waiting for final clearance and countdown. Now, results from a NASA SBIR program show that GTL’s composite tubing can reduce this chill-down time and LH₂ boil-off, as well as the mass of cryogenic fluid transfer lines.

GTL first developed its BHL technology for cryo-tank applications (see “GTL validates LH₂ composite dewar tanks for use in aviation”). However, the innovative materials and process also work well for cryogenic transfer lines, tubes and pipes, providing up to 10 times lower thermal mass than metal tubing. In a recent series of tests, GTL demonstrated the feasibility of these pipes in quickly reaching a temperature of 20°K (-273°C) and beginning the flow of LH₂ within 2 seconds. This means that once integrated into operational systems, an aircraft or launch vehicle’s LH₂ tanks could be filled in minutes instead of hours and easily manage the small amount of LH₂ that is boiled off during fill operations, significantly reducing fuel costs and increasing operational safety.

“We are thrilled with our team’s efforts to test and validate our BHL composite technology and its demonstrated ability to outperform conventional metal transfer lines for both mass and boil-off characteristics,” says GTL president Paul Gloyer. “We first had strong results with our composite LH₂ tank technology and now we have tubes that demonstrate fast fill and refill capabilities. The ultra-lightweight BHL technology being used/validated in this effort marks another key milestone in our efforts to advance hydrogen-powered innovation and vehicles.”

Looking closer at the results, the SBIR effort tested a series of lightweight BHL composite tubes along with equivalent metal tubing. These tests confirmed and validated the enhanced thermal properties of BHL tubes and demonstrated that they chilled down approximately 10 times faster than equivalent stainless steel tubing. The combination of a reduction in thermal mass and enhanced heat transfer properties achieved this improvement. With this technology, LH₂ boil-off during fuel transfer can be significantly reduced, opening the door to practical no-vent filling of LH₂ tanks for aircraft, trucks and spacecraft.

This SBIR Phase II effort also verified the scalability of the BHL tubes and demonstrated the capability to:

• Produce tubes with a range of diameters and lengths.
• Create tube bends and accommodate tube flexure.

As part of the effort, GTL fabricated flight-capable BHL tubing as the main liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid methane (LCH₄) propellant lines for GTL’s Disruptor suborbital rocket, which successfully demonstrated a cold-flow ground test of the vehicle.

GTL has multiple concurrent projects that leverage BHL technology, including integration of BHL composite tubing into the flight prototype of GTL’s ultra-lightweight composite LH₂ vacuum and jacketed dewar tank, scheduled for flight testing on a manned helicopter in Q4 2024. In the coming year, BHL tubes will also be integrated into further flight applications, demonstrating their lightweight, high-performance capabilities. GTL intends to integrate BHL tubes into future vehicle designs and cryogenic transfer line solutions. Its BHL composite technology applies to nearly any cryogenic system and thus offers benefits to space launch and satellite systems as well as lunar, cislunar and Mars mission applications.

The Nikon AM Technology Center in Long Beach, California, offers diverse solutions and services aimed at accelerating customer adoption, scaling and supply chain in metal additive manufacturing. Source: Nikon

Nikon Corp. and Nikon Advanced Manufacturing Inc. — the global headquarters of its Advanced Manufacturing business unit located in California — have opened the Nikon AM Technology Center in Long Beach, California. The company says this 90,000-square-foot facility is the next critical step in its Nikon Vision 2030 plan, which aims to advance manufacturing and establish digital manufacturing as a growth pillar for Nikon.

The facility is already operational to support clients, and is strategically located to serve the aviation, aerospace and defense industries. It offers diverse solutions and services aimed at accelerating customer adoption, scaling and supply chain in metal additive manufacturing.

The center consolidates a diverse and specialized global team dedicated to driving success for Nikon and its customers. It houses Nikon AM Synergy Inc. (which is the rebranded and reorganized former Morf3D Inc.), operating within an ultrasecure environment. The center will work in synergy with the upcoming Nikon SLM Solutions Studios as well as Nikon Research and Development which will be located at the facility.

The Nikon Research and Development at the center will focus on developing proprietary Nikon technologies, including directed energy deposition (DED) solutions, as well as engineering innovations, demonstrations and next-generation system development. The facility is also equipped with leading-edge metallurgy and metrology capabilities to support Nikon Advanced Manufacturing’s business initiatives.

Designed to offer a holistic and customer-centric approach, the Nikon AM Technology Center provides comprehensive design for additive manufacturing (DFAM) services, engineering and manufacturing solutions, as well as prototyping and production capabilities. These services are designed to meet critical customer needs for adoption, scaling and supply chain capacity. Core principles of the center include collaboration, partnership and flexibility, with production capabilities available both on-site and at customer locations, including contract manufacturers which Nikon is actively engaged in supporting and partnering.

The company says the center will leverage the industry’s most advanced large and ultralarge-format laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) tools from Nikon SLM Solutions AG and high-precision Nikon DED equipment, capable of handling a wide range of innovative and widely used alloys.

Nikon global assets within the Nikon AM Technology Center — Nikon AM Synergy, Nikon SLM Solutions and Nikon organically developed products — are key components of Nikon's Advanced Manufacturing business unit, established in 2023.

“In under a year, we have made significant strides toward revolutionizing the manufacturing landscape,” says Hamid Zarringhalam, Nikon Advanced Manufacturing CEO. “Our global organization's concerted efforts, coupled with the trust and support of our partners and customers, enable us to harness our deep expertise and new acquisitions, with the values that Nikon is renowned for globally.”

Source | PAL-V

Personal Air Landing Vehicle (PAL-V, Raamdonksveer, Netherlands), a company developing the Liberty flying car, and owner of Breda International Airport Forum Group BV (Noord Brabant) have signed an LOI to establish an assembly and delivery center for the PAL-V. Forum Group is aiming to develop the airport into a mobility innovation hub.

Seating two people, the Liberty is a combination between a car and gyroplane. Its fabrication involves many carbon fiber-reinforced components to “keep the vehicle as light as possible,” including the cabin and body panels. The propeller and rotors are also composite, though not carbon fiber. Liberty earned certification from the EASA in 2021. In 2019, PAL-V announced that GKN Fokker (Hoogeveen) was to advise the platform’s design, certification, engineering and manufacturing of its products

Breda International Airport will reportedly become the first European airport to host a dedicated assembly and delivery center for the gyroplane. This strategic collaboration will support the roll-out of the PAL-V FlyDrive vehicles as it approaches air certification and commercial availability. The new facility will serve as a hub for final assembly, customer demonstrations, flight training and pre-delivery inspections, playing a pivotal role in PAL-V’s global operations.

To support PAL-V’s production start-up, global expansion and the imminent delivery of the Liberty, PAL-V is completing a funding package that includes international strategic investors as well as a last wave of Dutch private investors.

Currently, Breda International Airport is home to the PAL-V FlyDrive Academy where PAL-V customers have been trained since 2019 for their flight license to use their PAL-V Liberty FlyDrive vehicle. The majority of reservations have been made for professional use like first responders, NGOs and governmental use like policing and border control. 

Next to flight training, PAL-V will use Breda Airport as a testing location for the further development of the Liberty platform, which the company says has a roadmap will innovations in clean tech drivetrains and other emerging technologies.

Source (All Images) | herone GmbH

A new approach to creating aircraft parts has been developed by reusing production waste from the manufacturing of clips and cleats for the Airbus (Toulouse, France) A350. This approach uses thermoplastic composites made from recycled materials, which provide a more circular alternative to contemporary thermoset composites. The use of thermoplastic composites has several advantages, including short cycle times, high toughness and weldability, making it an ideal material for next generation aircraft (see “Thermoplastic composites welding advances for more sustainable airframes”).

The Multifunctional Fuselage Demonstrator (MFFD) is demonstrating a NextGen Cabin and Cargo concept that standardizes the interfaces between the airframe and the customized cabin and systems components. This new “Crown Module” includes the ceiling area and “hat-rack” as well as electrical, air conditioning and oxygen supply components and numerous mechanical fixings. Pre-assembled and installed into the fuselage in a single attachment step, the MFFD Crown Module was constructed not with the originally planned metal beams but instead with ultra-light rods made from thermoplastic composites.

These rods are made from Teijin Carbon Europe (Wuppertal, Germany) TPUD HT CF-PPS (carbon fiber/polyphenylene sulfide) thermoplastic slit tape in combination with Spiral RTC’s (Enschede, Netherlands) recycled Spiral light PPS CF40 compound. The adjustable length rods are a great example of how production waste can be reused to create new and innovative products.

The recycled material used in this case comes from the production waste of clips and cleats for the Airbus A350 produced by the Collins Aerospace (Charlotte, N.C., U.S.) facility in Almere, Netherlands (see “The potential for thermoplastic nacelles”). Spiral then mechanically shreds the material to reduce its size and compounds it into injection molding granulate. Reuse of the material helps to avoid approximately 20 kilograms of CO₂ emissions per kilogram of granulate. This environmental benefit can help reduce the carbon footprint of the aviation industry and close the loop for high-performance thermoplastic composite materials.

The final part is manufactured by herone GmbH (Dresden, Germany) based on the automated processing of thermoplastic composite tapes in a braiding process and a subsequent energy-efficient consolidation process (see “Injection-forming for high-performance, unitized thermoplastic structures”). The formerly metallic connecting elements are replaced by injection molded parts using the recycled compound. All components use the same thermoplastic composite material, so that the components can completely be recycled again. This approach can be used for a wide variety of structures, including aircraft floor struts, tie rods and so on.

“We are excited to see the aviation industry taking steps toward sustainability by reusing production waste and reducing carbon emissions” says Christian Garthaus, managing partner for herone. “This innovative approach is a promising solution that can help support the journey to decarbonize aviation.”

Airbus’ composites production facility in Illescas features high levels of automation to produce carbon fiber/epoxy prepreg parts for a variety of commercial aircraft, notably the A350 lower wing covers and Section 19 fuselage barrels. Source (All Images) | Airbus

In 2012, CW senior technical editor emeritus Sara Black wrote about the aviation industry in Spain through her site visits to Airbus’ composites facility in Illescas, next-door Tier 1 Aernnova and nearby research organization FIDAMC. In early 2024, CW had the chance to revisit these facilities to see how they — and the industry — have grown in the years since. This report covers this recent tour of Airbus Illescas; see CW senior technical editor Ginger Gardiner’s report on Aernnova’s Toledo and Illescas sites.

CW’s tour of Airbus’ Illescas facility was led by Mónica Álvarez, head of operations at the Illescas site, and Tamara Blanco, Airbus expert in multifunctional composites. It began with a high-level update on Airbus’ composite operations and goals in Spain, as well as specifically in Illescas.

Across its Commercial, Defense and Space, and Airbus Helicopters divisions, Airbus operates seven manufacturing sites in Spain — San Pablo, Tablada, Cadiz, Illescas, Albacete, Tres Cantos and Getafe — employing more than 14,100 employees.

The 170,848-square-meter Illescas facility, located in the province of Toledo but only a short drive south of Madrid, focuses on composites manufacturing of components for the company’s Commercial division. As Black previously reported in 2012, the facility was built in 1989, and originally manufactured the carbon fiber composite upper and lower wing covers for the Eurofighter, and the upper and lower horizontal tail plane (HTP) skins for the A330, followed by HTP skins for the A320.

An A350 Section 19 fuselage barrel, with 42 co-cured stringers.

In 1991, the plant expanded, building a new space to manufacture the composite Section 19 fuselage sections and skins for lateral boxes for the A380, a plane which was phased out in 2021. When the A350 widebody aircraft — which boasts 50% of its primary structures manufactured from composites, the most of any Airbus commercial aircraft so far — began production in 2015, the plant began manufacturing its lower wing covers and Section 19 fuselages, “and these are our main workload drivers now,” Álvarez says.

The plant’s manufacturing technologies include automatic tape laying (ATL), automatic fiber placement (AFP), autoclave cure, trimming and automatic inspection. All composite parts manufactured at this facility are made from carbon fiber/epoxy prepreg, mostly supplied by Hexcel (Stamford, Conn., U.S.). “We consume more than 1 million square meters of CFRP [carbon fiber-reinforced polymer] per year,” Álvarez says.

Today, the plant’s product portfolio includes the upper and lower HTP skins for the A320/A320neo and A330/A330neo, the front and rear spars for the A330/A330neo, the lower wing covers (also called wing lower covers, or WLC) and Section 19 for the A350, and the wing skins, front spar and wing tip spar for the EuroFighter-2000.

Wide-ranging goals: From ramp-ups to sustainability

“Our strategy is to work on what we call steps toward more composites within aircraft, and the A350 was a big step,” Álvarez explains. The impetus for increasing composites use is, of course, weight savings, which leads to less overall fuel consumption by the aircraft.

With its current commercial aircraft, Airbus as a whole, including the Illescas facility, is focused on preparing production capacity for its planned ramp-ups. Affecting the Illescas plant are increasing rate targets for the A320 (ramping up from 45 to 75/month in 2027), the A330 (ramping up from 3 to 4/month by the end of 2024) and the A350 (ramping up from 6 to 12/month in 2028). For all of these, the Illescas plant is “preparing the industrial means and processes to achieve these rates,” Álvarez says.

Alongside these ramp-ups, the company is also working toward the development of its “next-generation” aircraft. Looking ahead, the company’s top drivers, Álvarez says, are “driving down costs, increasing productivity of our industrial systems, quick ramp-ups and contributing to sustainability.”

With each of these drivers in mind, she explains that the top two priorities for Airbus’ next-generation commercial aircraft designs are, first, replacement of a single-aisle narrowbody aircraft, and second, its announced ZEROe short-range hydrogen-fueled electric aircraft, which is aimed to fly by 2035.

The Illescas plant is working toward increasing production efficiency for Airbus’ planned ramp-ups, including an expected doubling of production for the A350 by 2028.

“For both of these, we expect to have a high rate of composites content to save weight. Low weight is key to fuel savings, especially if we want to onboard H₂ [hydrogen] tank systems. Whether we use H₂ or SAF [sustainable aviation fuel] for the narrowbody, weight will still be key and composites are likely to be key enablers of the next generation,” Álvarez says.

The Illescas facility in particular is working on solutions to improve next-generation aircraft efficiency, including R&D work on enhanced materials and processes, with a focus on ensuring sustainability.

Regarding its sustainability goals, about 4 years ago, Airbus changed its company motto from “We make it fly” to “We pioneer sustainable aerospace for a safe and united world.” “This change to me is a clear signal that we as a company want to join what we are doing in the present with the future,” Álvarez says. “We have to lead the ecosystem in not only being the best in what we do in our current and future products, but to lead the ecosystem around us with this focus on sustainable aerospace.” The company also supports industry targets such as EU Green Deal objectives for carbon neutrality by 2050 and a 55% reduction in CO₂ emissions by 2030.

“Composite materials might be a minor part of our overall carbon footprint today, but as we increase composites usage on future aircraft, the footprint will grow, especially as we reduce operation emissions by switching to hydrogen or SAF,” Blanco says. “We are fully committed to developing the ecosystem to enable recyclability of composites production scrap and end-of-life parts, and to work with suppliers to reduce the emissions of raw materials.”

In Illescas, sustainability efforts include working toward greater machine efficiency, looking for materials recycling solutions including several ongoing R&D projects and reducing waste, which involves the installation of a rainwater recovery system to feed into the cleanroom climate control system and nondestructive testing (NDT) equipment. For more details on the company’s sustainability initiatives, see companion article, “Airbus works to improve the lifecycle of composites in future aircraft.”

Predictive factory, empowered workforce

How is the plant working toward greater efficiency? “Our ambition is to become a predictive factory,” Álvarez says. “We as an industry have a lot of scrap and quality costs because we inspect the product at the end of the manufacturing process, but we need better ways to detect and predict defects earlier on, before the entire part is made, when there is still an opportunity to fix the problem.”

This includes implementation of various types of sensors on all machines and levels of the manufacturing process, to connect each stage of the process, provide information for the development of digital twins and ultimately provide “smart alerts” that anticipate any problems or defects and let the operator know so that the process can be stopped and corrected before it goes any further.

“Building a predictive factory is our ambition, and in my case, it’s like an obsession,” Álvarez says. “I prefer to say it’s a ‘data-driven factory’ instead of the word ‘digitalization.’ I don’t just want digital screens in the factory, I want a process that uses data to anticipate issues and optimize the process.”

Another set of goals Álvarez has for the Illescas facility is growing, diversifying and empowering its workforce. Currently, the facility numbers around 700 employees, with plans to grow as aircraft production ramps up. The average age for employees is 42 with 14 years of experience. Álvarez notes that gender diversity is something they are actively working toward — currently, women comprise 21% of the plant’s white collar employees, 12% of blue collar employees and 66% of engineering management. And of course, the overall plant itself is woman-led with Álvarez at the helm.

The Illescas plant also has what’s called an autonomous production team (APT), which is “a team of blue collars and supervisors that are empowered to make decisions on their own. For us, it was one of the biggest cultural transformations here,” Álvarez says, “a transformation to take improvement and optimization decisions down to the lowest level.”

As the CW tour moves out of the conference room and onto the production floor, Álvarez sums up, “Highlights of the plant include ramping up, boosting this predictive factory, working on sustainable solutions, improvement of the products with our steps and also working on R&D projects for the next-generation aircraft. This is more or less what we are doing now in the plant.”

Touring the A350 WLC facility

The Illescas facility comprises two production buildings. The first production facility CW had the chance to walk through is the newer, 64,988-square-meter building completed in 2011, which houses production for the A350 WLC.

Each cover comprises a skin reinforced with 17 stringers. To show how this process is done, Álvarez and Blanco lead the CW tour into a massive, open cleanroom. First, we walk into a space called the control room, where the team holds daily meetings and tracks progress via a SQCDP (safety, quality, cost, delivery and people) board on the wall. This is where the APT meets as well. Here, Álvarez explains that the wing covers, measuring 32 meters long and weighing 2,700 kilograms, are the largest CFRP part on the A350.

It’s worth noting that, due in part to the large space and large machines and parts, there appear to be few people around as we are walking through the cleanroom. Álvarez says that this is because the process is highly automated, about 70% for the A350 WLC core processes. About 50 employees are on the production floor at any given shift, most of them operating the automated equipment.

AFP and ATL layup

The wing lower cover (WLC) cleanroom showcases automated processes in action. Shown on the right side of the first image and in the close-up photo, a series of gantry-style ATL and AFP machines lay up copper foil LSP and CFRP lower wing skins. To the left of the space, stringers are laid up and preformed via hot drape forming (HDF).

Leaving the control room, we first approach three gantry-style MTorres (Torres de Elorz, Spain) ATL machines. At current rates, only two of these machines are needed to lay up the WLC’s exterior layer of expanded copper foil for lightning strike protection (LSP). Four gantry-style MTorres AFP machines are then used to lay up the carbon fiber/epoxy prepreg for the skins themselves onto 3D Invar tools.

Why is ATL used for the LSP but AFP for the skins? Álvarez explains that AFP is much faster, able to lay down material at a rate of 50 kilograms/hour — versus the ATL’s rate of 20 kilograms/hour — which is more suitable for the skins, especially to meet ramp-up goals. The current foil used for LSP is also more suited for use with ATL, which processes wider tapes up to 300 millimeters (11.8 inches).

Airbus has worked on optimizing its AFP process further, and is switching its machines from 12.7-millimeter-wide (0.5-inch) tapes to 50.8-millimeter-wide (2-inch) tapes to increase efficiency. “Our first step is increasing the width capability of the AFP machines. For the next generation, we want to consolidate these processes and use one [AFP] machine, with wider and thicker CFRP materials for a higher deposition rate,” Blanco adds.

After layup, the skins are transferred out of the cleanroom for their first autoclave cycle, then brought back in for integration with the stringers.

Airbus is working on optimizing its four MTorres AFP machines for faster layup to meet production ramp-up goals. This includes replacing one of its fiber placement heads to lay down wider tapes, and R&D efforts to combine skins and LSP into one multifunctional material, which would reduce materials and process steps.

Stringer forming and integration

Simultaneously with skin layup, the stringers are manufactured in a highly automated work cell on the far side of the cleanroom. There are 17 T-shaped stringers manufactured per wing skin, with varying lengths up to 32 meters.

The 32-meter-long stringer forming cell starts with two cantilever, 2D placement Torresfiber AFP machines to lay up tailored blanks for the stringer preforms, with trimming done on a nearby Torrespanex cutting system, both supplied by MTorres. The blanks are then preformed in a hot drape forming (HDF) machine and, after cooldown, are ready for integration onto the skins. Robotic arms move the stringers from one position to another.

Blanco explains the purpose of an extrusion machine seen to one side of the stringer forming cell: Leftover prepreg tape rolls are spliced via a KUKA (Augsburg, Germany) robot and then extruded into triangular fillers and noodles that are used to help position the T-stringers onto the skins.

In the top image, an autonomous AGV transports a vacuum-bagged wing lower cover tool and preform into one of two brightly painted autoclaves (bottom).

We watch an AGV train move past carrying a wing skin tool, headed toward the exit door toward the adjacent autoclave area, where there are two vacuum bagging stations. Here, stringer preforms are placed via laser projectors and attached with adhesive to the skin. The entire assembly is then vacuum bagged and sent back into the autoclave for its final cure.

Autoclave, finishing, inspection

The tour continues from the cleanroom into the autoclave area, where there are two 40-meter-long, 7-meter-diameter autoclaves for curing both the skins and final WLC assemblies.

Beyond these are a series of four trimming stations, two on the right and two on the left, which employ laser scanners to check for dimensional accuracy, as well as assembly stations and two paint booths.

The final part is trimmed, drilled — 29 manholes must be cut into it for maintenance — assembled with gaskets and supports, and painted with primer. Airbus also performs visual and C-scan inspection here. The final parts are now ready for assembly into the A350 wings.

Transport for final assembly

How are the 32-meter-long wing components transported to the assembly facility? Álvarez explains, “We can transport them via truck as far as our facility in Getafe,” which is about 15 kilometers away — though she adds, “We have to close the road while we’re transporting them, so we can only do this at night and everything has to be highly controlled and coordinated ahead of time.” From Getafe, the WLCs are loaded onto Airbus’s Beluga transport aircraft to travel to Airbus facilities in Broughton and from there to the Airbus final assembly line (FAL).

From a sustainability perspective, Blanco adds that they switched from using the standard Beluga — capable of carrying two skins at a time — to the Beluga XL, which can carry four skins at a time (two right-hand and two left-hand, or skins for two aircraft), to help decrease transport costs and associated CO₂ emissions. The Beluga XL is also designed to run on SAF.

Cured wing covers are trimmed, painted and inspected here before transport to their final assembly facilities.

Touring the Section 19 facility

From here, the tour continues outside and to the nearby Section 19 building, moving first into another large cleanroom and into a control room similar to the one in the WLC building. “These control rooms are the same in all of our composites production facilities,” Álvarez says. She explains that the Section 19 is a fuselage barrel piece measuring 5.7 meters in length and about 4 meters in diameter, using 589 kilograms of carbon fiber prepreg to cover 53 square meters of surface area. In this building, Section 19s are manufactured for the A350-900 and -1000, as well as the newer A350 freighter.

The Section 19 cleanroom features two specially configured AFP machines (pictured left and back) for laying up the part on 5.7-meter-long, 4-meter-diameter aluminum mandrels.

This is the first composite Section 19 barrel Airbus has produced in one shot, and was one of the main goals in the design process — the A380 Section 19 was manufactured in six pieces that were joined together. Another design challenge was that this part of the fuselage has to handle complex loads from the HTP and vertical tail plane (VTP), which led to the materials choice of carbon fiber composites. The core processes for manufacturing this Section 19 have been automated about 60% so far, Álvarez adds.

Outside the control room are two ATL machines and a Torrespanex cutting machine, all supplied by MTorres. These are used to lay up 42 omega-shaped stringers per Section 19, again made from Hexcel carbon fiber/epoxy prepreg.

Next, the stringer plies are transferred to one of two nearby HDF machines for forming into the 6 × 2-inch-wide stringers. An autonomous AGV can be seen driving past, delivering the omega stringers across the room to one of two vertical storage warehouses. The process is similar to the WLC stringer forming process, albeit differently shaped tools and stringers; however, for the Section 19 fuselage, ATL layup is used versus AFP.

Beside the HDF lines and in the far corner of the space are two AFP stations — one by MAG (now owned by Fives) and one by Fives (Paris, France) — which lay up the skin onto an aluminum barrel mandrel designed by Airbus and manufactured by an external supplier. The skin is also transferred to the integration station, where stringers are pulled out of the storage warehouses and fitted by hand into specially designed channels in the mandrel. The entire assembly is then vacuum bagged for curing.

Autoclave, finishing and inspection

The tour continues into the next room, following the process to the autoclave area, which contains one autoclave and one demolding station. The sheer size of the parts is on full display here, with a row of finished Section 19 barrels seen on the far side of the space, perched on jigs and awaiting inspection.

A vacuum bagged Section 19 with pre-placed stringers, en route to the autoclave.

The entire Section 19, including skins and stringers, is co-cured in one shot. Álvarez notes that the demolding process is “tricky,” requiring a specially designed process and controlled cooling for removing the part without damage. “The part keeps the same size after cure while the mandrel shrinks during cooldown. That makes it possible to separate the part from the tooling,” she explains. Six carbon fiber composite caul plates are used per mandrel to maintain outer surface dimension control.

To the left of the demolding area is a dust-controlled room where holes, for attaching frames and hardware during the assembly process, are drilled via a waterjet trimming station. Álvarez notes that the facility is looking for solutions with local partners for reuse of the trimming scrap.

The tour also enters the operator control area of a PAR Systems (Saint Paul, Minn., U.S.) robotic cell, where we can see a Comau (Grugliasco, Italy) robot that uses a diamond-coated tool to precisely cut holes into the stringers where fuselage frames will be attached with clips.

After cure, trimming, drilling and painting, each Section 19 is inspected first by ultrasonic scanner, then visually while mounted in a rotating jig.

Each completed Section 19 is inspected in a two-step process, starting with a single-side, automatic phased-array ultrasonic NDT cell. Non-accessible areas are inspected manually via pulse echo ultrasonic testing (UT). In the second step within an adjacent manual inspection cell, the entire jig rotates around the person doing a visual inspection for better ergonomics. Finally, the parts are ready for transport and final assembly.

Preparing for the future

As the tour concludes, Álvarez emphasizes the ways both the WLC and Section 19 processes we witnessed circle back to Airbus’ larger goals and those of the Illescas plant in particular. “At every stage of the process, we’re implementing predictive sensors, because this data is how we’ll make our processes more efficient and meet both our sustainability and rate targets. On every team, we’re aiming for diversity and empowerment. We’re constantly reevaluating and improving the automation you see across the factory. It’s all about improving what we have now and preparing for what comes next.”

Source | Polaris via LinkedIn

Polaris SpacePlanes (Bremen), a German aerospace startup developing a novel reusable space launch and hypersonic transport system, has received an investment from Dienes Holding (Kaiserslautern) businessman and investor Klaus Dienes. This is Polaris’ largest investment to date, with private funding reaching a total of €7.1 million.

Dienes is involved in various companies in industry and other sectors, including startups, and serves as an advisory board member of several entities. He says he has invested in Polaris to capture the commercialization potential in the spaceflight and defense markets. He is convinced that the composites-intensive products and technologies under development at Polaris (read “Polaris Spaceplanes receives MIRA II, MIRA III fiberglass airframes”) serve these growing markets.

As part of his investment, Dienes will also become member of the advisory board at Polaris. Beyond his present investment, he will provide ongoing strategic and financial support. He joins existing investors Polaris Space Ventures, Mittelständische Beteiligungsgesellschaft Bremen, E2MC Ventures, Kupke GmbH as well as four private individuals.

Polaris reports that it will use the funds for the development of the supersonic prototype Nova and to execute on large customer contracts, in advance of a large funding round in 2025.
 

Recycled raw material for the production of CFRP sandwich structures. Source | The Institute of Manufacturing Technology and Machine Tools (IFW) 

Source | Skydweller Aero Inc.

Skydweller Aero (Oklahoma City, Okla., U.S.) announces it has successfully completed the initial uncrewed autonomous flight test campaign of its carbon fiber Skydweller unmanned aerial system (UAS). A series of uncrewed flight tests — with the two longest being 16 hours and 22 ½ hours — were launched from the company’s facility at Stennis International Airport in Kiln, Mississippi.

This campaign aims to deliver extreme flight endurance and demonstrates the feasibility of remaining airborne for weeks to months using solar energy and batteries. It is said to be a milestone in the development of the Skydweller aircraft, as well as its high-reliability autonomous vehicle management system.

This campaign was initiated under a Joint Concept Technology Demonstration (JCTD) by the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research & Engineering (OUSD R&E) and sustained by a Cooperative Research & Development Agreement (CRADA) with the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) to evaluate Autonomous Maritime Patrol Aircraft (AMPA).

“We have accomplished a milestone toward demonstrating the feasibility of perpetual flight by leveraging the trillions of dollars in global R&D investment in solar energy, battery storage, and the handing and manufacturing of strong, lightweight carbon fiber assemblies. As these subsystems improve, we are continuing to leverage them for the benefit of our customers,” says Barry Matsumori, president and CEO of Skydweller Aero.

According to the company, flight highlights include:

• Uncrewed autonomous operation: At high operation tempo, the Skydweller aircraft conducted a series of long endurance flight tests demonstrating potential to perform extreme endurance missions.
• Solar-powered flight: Powered by solar energy, the aircraft delivers zero carbon emissions with ultra-quiet operations.
• High-reliability autonomous systems: The flight demonstrated uncrewed operation of Skydweller’s fully redundant autonomous systems and beyond-line-of-sight operations and communication.

Automation can take many forms within a manufacturing facility. Xemelgo’s software, combined with RFID tagging technology, enables manufacturers like Sekisui Aerospace to automatically locate and track tools or parts within the facility, and sends automatic alerts via email if anything is delayed. A map dashboard system has also been developed to show visibility into parts’ progress across the facility in real time. Source | Xemelgo (top), Sekisui Aerospace (below, right)

Industry 4.0 and automation are increasingly part of conversations about part design and process, but there are also a lot of day-to-day operational tasks that are often done manually and with a heavy reliance on paper, such as tracking parts, raw materials or tools within a facility.

With this in mind, Rich Rogers and Akhila Tadinada, engineering and technology leaders who had previously worked together at digital technologies company Hitachi, decided to develop their own software platform for helping manufacturing companies automate operations tracking and similar tasks. In 2018, they co-founded their startup, Xemelgo (Bellevue, Wash., U.S.), and spent the next few years growing the business and entering pitch competitions to gain funding and recognition in the industry.

“Originally, [Rogers and Tadinada] started out with the idea that there’s more and more automation being used by manufacturers, but a lot of tracking and running day-to-day operations are still done on paper. There’s value to be created by automating routine, everyday mundane tasks, freeing up employees for more engaging work that adds real value,” explains Garrett Gross, Xemelgo product manager. “Every one of our solutions has been co-created with a customer, in response to solving customer problems.”

Over the past year and a half, the company has grown significantly, he adds. Xemelgo has partnered with radio frequency identification (RFID) tag and reader supplier Zebra Technologies (Lincolnshire, Ill., U.S.), which offers hardware that complements Xemelgo’s software. Xemelgo currently has customers deploying its technology across the U.S. in a variety of manufacturing industries, including Sekisui Aerospace (Renton, Wash., U.S.).

RFID tracking to streamline factory operations

Xemelgo offers a suite of software products designed to streamline various operations within a manufacturing facility, distributor or retail warehouse: Inventory management, asset tracking, work-in-process (WIP) tracking, shipment tracking and internal package delivery.

“We use a lot of different technologies to automatically collect data within a manufacturing facility, and the most prominent is currently RFID tags,” Gross explains. RFID is a common wireless tracking system that involves handheld or mounted sensors that use radio waves to connect to the microchips in RFID tags that are strategically placed on objects such as raw materials, tools, parts or shipments. All data received by the sensors is stored and translated into readable, actionable information by Xemelgo’s Cloud-based software platform.

Xemelgo’s software can be used with a variety of tracking technology, the most popular being RFID tags with handheld or mounted sensors. Xemelgo works with partners like Zebra Technologies to help customers install hardware. Source | Xemelgo 

“RFID technology is popular because it’s simple to use, with no battery required, while providing a lot of advantages over a more traditional barcode system,” Gross adds. While barcodes have to be manually scanned within inches of the sensor, RFID tags can be sensed from 25 feet away or more and through materials like cardboard, and the scanners can communicate with hundreds of tags per second.

The Xemelgo app, downloaded on a smartphone or accessed via the web on a desktop, instantaneously provides real-time visibility on the location and/or progress of whichever inventory, part or package has been tagged and is being tracked. Operators can also input status updates, such as if a particular part is damaged or if it needs to be expedited for the customer.

Desktop and mobile platforms enable operators to look up inventory, parts, tools and other tracked items automatically and also automate tasks like finding missing items, taking inventory and keeping track of chemical or prepreg expiration dates. Source | Xemelgo

Ultimately, benefits include saving the time that it would take for manual searching or tracking on paper or other means, cost savings associated with this decrease in labor, increased productivity, an empowered workforce (as employees can see exactly what needs to be done next) and paper waste reduction.

Xemelgo’s software can be used for a variety of businesses where any sort of tracking of goods would be needed, including manufacturing, distribution and retail facilities, and for any range of end markets including aerospace, automotive and others that the composites industry serves.

In composites, the products with the most use cases are Xemelgo’s work-in-progress tracking platform, which can be used for automated location tracking and process management of current work orders via a real-time dashboard; asset tracking, which can be used to locate equipment or production tooling; and inventory management, for keeping track of expiration dates or shelf-life of prepregs, chemicals or other raw materials.

Composites case study: Sekisui Aerospace

One example of Xemelgo’s software in use for the composites industry is the company’s ongoing work with Sekisui Aerospace, a Tier 1 aerospace supplier of high-volume composite parts and assemblies. (To learn more about the work they are doing, see CW senior technical editor Ginger Gardiner’s plant tour of Sekisui Aerospace’s Renton and Sumner, Washington, and Orange City, Iowa facilities).

As Gardiner reported in 2023, Sekisui Aerospace’s product mix is wide-ranging, including 10,000 parts/year for aeroengines, 150,000 parts/year for commercial aircraft ducting and interiors and 100,000 carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composite brackets per year. Manufacturing capabilities include prepreg layup with autoclave and out-of-autoclave (OOA) cure, compression molding for serial production including with high-temperature materials, quick prototyping and continuous compression molding (CCM) or automated stamping for producing thermoplastic composite parts.

The company began focusing on automation and Industry 4.0 practices when CEO Daniele Cagnatel joined the company in 2017. “We took a problems-based approach, wanting to modernize and update our processes in ways that make sense and could be standardized across the facilities, and this led us to start early on with the plaster shop, which ultimately led us to Xemelgo,” explains Julie Traweek, senior product manager and experience designer at Sekisui Aerospace.

Phase 1: Shipment tracking of plaster molds

Single-use plaster molds are made in a dedicated shop and then delivered a few miles away to the company’s Sumner production facility, where they are used to manufacture composite prepreg parts such as aircraft ducts (see the plant tour for more on this production process).

These molds are pretty fragile, says Traweek, “so they can break in transit or in the layup room fairy easily. But these molds are also the first stage of the process, so if there’s a delay with one of them for any reason, it holds up the process. Communication about plaster status is very important, and we needed a better way to do that.” Previously, a team of people was dedicated to locating molds and their status in the facility, and there was a list of roughly 600-800 missing plaster molds per month.

Traweek says that Sekisui Aerospace started investigating various methods for location tracking, including barcode stickers, and through this research process began working with Xemelgo’s software and RFID technology in 2019. “We knew that we wanted a process that would be easy to implement without too many added steps, but we also knew that we would want a solution that we could expand its use beyond plasters,” Traweek explains. “Our leadership’s ultimate vision, in fact, was to create a map to see every part located in the facility at once, and we thought RFID tags could be the way we could work toward that.”

Sekisui Aerospace first needed an automated solution to solve issues with missing or delayed plaster molds (blue, top photo) used to make a variety of ducts and other components (bottom photos), with the goal of finding a solution that could also scale up to automate parts tracking at its production facilities. Source | Sekisui Aerospace

For this first phase of deployment, RFID tags would be attached to each plaster mold at its manufacture. Each batch is scanned first by a mobile phone as it is loaded onto an assigned cart for transport out of the facility. As the cart exits the facility, the molds are scanned by readers at th shop exit — at which point each mold is labeled as “in transit” in the Xemelgo software — and then scanned again by a second reader on arrival at the Sumner plant.

Renuka Agrawal, director of engineering at Xemelgo, explains, “At the Sumner plant, there is an employee using a handheld scanner to do this, so that they can also do a visual check and take notes directly into the software using the scanner if there is visible damage or any other issues that need to be reported.” Automatic alerts send emails if anything is reported missing or damaged, and an email notification is sent to the team lead each day detailing all of the molds that were delivered that day and any recorded notes.

Traweek adds, “It was definitely an iterative process. We leaned pretty heavily on Xemelgo for getting the hardware installation and getting connected with the suppliers, and they were able to offer a lot of advice about how to approach this from their experience.”

Agrawal emphasizes that this process is not a huge departure from the paper system that was already in place, and isn’t meant to be. “At Xemelgo, we don’t want to disrupt the process that is already in place. We want to build a solution that is not a huge burden on the customer to put into place, and simply streamlines and automates the current system,” she says.

How did Phase 1 go? The list of missing plaster molds was reduced to less than 10 per month, Traweek says. Plus, the shop is able to produce more molds per day, as the staff who used to spend a lot of time looking for molds are now able to spend more time problem solving and leading their teams.

Once it was established that the technology was beneficial, Sekisui Aerospace began working with Xemelgo to expand the system to the rest of the Sumner facility’s operations.

Phase 2: WIP tracking

“In early 2021, Xemelgo began working with Sekisui Aerospace’s Sumner facility to implement the second phase, work order [or work in progress/WIP] tracking,” Agrawal says. “We started with one operation to begin with, and then once we had that up and running, we rolled it out across the entire facility.” The goal was to solve similar issues with locating parts in progress on the floor, and to also create a solution that could be standardized across facilities.

An RFID tag attached to each plaster mold or part being tracked can be read by wall-mounted sensors to track when they arrive in different facilities or areas of the facility. Source | Sekisui Aerospace

Implementation was again an iterative process. As prepreg materials are cut and kitted for a part, each kit is fitted with a removable RFID tag. This kit can then be tracked as it moves through the facility to the layup area. Once laid up onto one of the single-use plaster tools described above, the kit’s RFID tag is removed and is attached to the top sheet of its paperwork order that follows it through the facility for the rest of the process. “It goes from layup to bonding, bonding to where the single-use plaster tool is broken out, then to trimming and assembly, and finally to final part storage before it gets shipped out. The same tag that was associated with the prepreg kit follows the work order around the facility to shipping,” Agrawal explains.

To accompany this process, 120 RFID readers were installed around the facility — “We basically blanketed the entire facility with RFID readers,” Agrawal says. These allow the work orders to be scanned and tracked at all locations and operations, enabling visibility of all steps in real time without having to rely on manual scanning of barcodes. “This eliminates any question of trying to figure out where a particular order is at,” Agrawal says, noting that Sekisui again had previously had to devote multiple employees to finding orders on the facility floor.

Traweek adds that one challenge during this phase was that the company was in the process of updating its ERP software, so the system had to be able to work with both the current system and the future upgraded version.

Gross says that the Xemelgo platform was able to integrate with any ERP system, and that it works hand in hand with it to automate real-time data collection, rather than competing with or replacing the current system.

It soon became clear that this use for the WIP tracking product required a more sophisticated tool to locate parts and manage efficiency expectations around the plant more easily. The companies began working on prototypes of a plant-wide map system that Sekisui’s leadership had envisioned.

Developing a dynamic, real-time map dashboard

“From a leadership perspective, Sekisui wanted a bird’s eye view of how the facility is doing,” Agrawal explains. For a company that produces hundreds of thousands of parts per year, being able to quickly see the overall status of the plant was paramount.

With Sekisui’s help and feedback, Xemelgo developed a map tool accessible within the Xemelgo WIP tracking platform, which gathers data from the work order RFID tags to provide a color-coded “bird’s eye view” of where all orders are at within the facility at any given time.

The map dashboard system enables both operators and leadership to see the progress of parts around the facility in real time. Source | Sekisui Aerospace

“The color codes are based on time of each part or material kit in each location, compared to the input data of how much time each part should be at each place for each operation,” Agrawal says. Xemelgo worked with Sekisui to determine the timing threshold for each operation — both the ideal timing and the allowable timing — to account for any queuing or other regular holding periods.

Areas of the facility that are operating within the programmed time threshold for a particular order are color coded green on the map; yellow areas warn that a threshold has been reached and red indicates the threshold has been exceeded. The map dashboard can also be filtered to show only orders marked as expedited, or to show only orders being manufactured for a particular part. For the latter, a report can be produced that Sekisui can use in its conversations with customers. “We’re still working on this feature as well,” Agrawal adds. “In future, we plan to build a secure customer portal where customers will be able to directly access data from their orders on the factory floor.”

“It vastly expands on the picture you get with just an ERP system,” Traweek says. “It sheds light on so many of what I’d call ‘black holes’ in the process, or areas where you just really don’t have any visibility.”

Developing the threshold system was an iterative process, Agrawal adds. Because this was not data Sekisui had access to before, “the original thresholds set just to try it out were of course very optimistic, based on ideal scenarios. And almost immediately, every area of the facility was yellow or red. Because the reality is, there are a variety of reasons that a particular part may not be worked on at any given moment. This could be a material shortage, or an issue that an engineer is looking into, or some defect or a change in the process. We learned there are a variety of known reasons why a part might not be worked on at a given moment, and the whole department shouldn’t be penalized for this.”

Xemelgo was able to introduce a feature where Sekisui employees can “report an issue” on any particular work order, which excludes that part from appearing in the map dashboard for a period of time. Xemelgo also worked with Sekisui to determine an accepted threshold for how many parts may be out of process at any given moment, so that the entire map doesn’t turn red because a small percentage of parts appear to be off-schedule at any given time when they are within a reasonable and expected amount.

One of the unexpected benefits of Xemelgo’s system for Sekisui Aerospace was an increase in productivity. Automating parts tracking enabled employees who used to spend more time manually looking for parts and plaster molds to spend more time on the production floor. Source | Sekisui Aerospace

Gross adds, “The colors can be very motivating to people. Nobody wants their station to be red. This is a program where every single operator at the facility can look at the TV and see how their department is doing at any given time. And just by having that metric up on the board increases performance. We didn’t change Sekisui’s process, we just added more visibility into what is going on.”

According to Agrawal, production increased by 3% at the Sumner facility when the technology was deployed. But an increase in production efficiency wasn’t the only benefit. Gross points out that workforce development and the challenge of hiring skilled laborers is an industry-wide problem in manufacturing, and a software system like Xemelgo can help alleviate these issues. In Sekisui’s case, Agrawal notes, “Cagnatel really believes in enabling people to use their skillset to the fullest potential. And that’s really our goal as well, using technology to do mundane jobs like locating molds and parts in progress so that the people who were doing that can do higher level jobs.”

As noted in CW’s plant tour on the company, Sekisui’s Sumner facility was able to reduce the staff needed to locate parts within the facility from 15 to three once Xemelgo was deployed.

Currently, the Sumner facility has gotten to the point, Traweek says, where they’re able to use the Xemelgo system to help not only achieve visibility into the process but to also help inform optimization of the process as needed.

Phase 3: Replicating at Renton

Once the Xemelgo technology was shown to be effective at the Sumner facility, Sekisui decided to replicate the system at its facility in Renton, Washington.

Similarly to the Sumner plant, about 120 manual or handheld RFID readers were set up around the facility, and a process was put in place to track works in progress from material cutting and kitting through to the final part ready for shipment.

The system was up and running as of April 2024. Traweek notes, “Right now we’re knee-deep in deployment, tuning, reader adjustments, process adoption and all of that. Renton is different in that it doesn’t have that same mix of parts that Sumner does. It’s where our design center is, so most of the new programs flow through Renton and customers are involved, which opens up new possibilities and things to think about.”

Continuing developments: Customer portal, core tracking

Xemelgo continues to work with Sekisui to offer additional software features for its Sumner and Renton facilities. These include exploring the concept of the aforementioned customer portal option to the WIP map dashboard, as well as extending the RFID to track metal tooling like jigs and fixtures and also core, which, similarly to the single-use plaster molds, is produced at a separate facility and then shipped to Sumner for use in the manufacturing process.

Xemelgo is also working on integrating its platform more fully with ERP systems such as Epicor, which Sekisui uses. At first, there was an additional process involved with transferring data from Epicor to Xemelgo, “but we’ve integrated the systems so that tracking information is automatically updated in our system,” Agrawal says. “Now, we are working on enabling a path back to their ERP system, so that they can use Xemelgo’s data to do things they would use Epicor for, like prioritizing queues on the floor.” 

Additional use cases: Inventory tracking, raw materials management

While Sekisui Aerospace is a key early user of Xemelgo’s software in the composites space, this technology has been successfully adopted in a variety of related industries, and the company sees a lot of potential for other future uses as well.

For example, Xemelgo’s asset tracking feature, which leverages RFID tags to manage a variety of assets, has been successfully deployed by customers such as an automotive manufacturer tracking thousands of returnable totes, a metal forming shop tracking production tooling, a bond shop specializing in metal-metal bonding for the aerospace industry and an industrial distributor of supplies and chemicals.

With RFID inventory management, “You can automatically track consumption and manage optimal stock levels, and then we can alert you in time to let you know that you are running low before you completely run out, so that you can avoid downtime while saving on expedited costs or transportation,” explains Gross.

Another potential Xemelgo use case within composites is to manage raw materials inventory. “There’s a lot of potential there for composites manufacturers, to be able to track prepreg life and send out alerts if material has been out of the freezer too long or is reaching its expiration date or whatever the parameters are that have been set for each material,” Gross says. “In composites, this could help with compliance use cases, such as tracking the shelf life of prepreg.”

Agrawal adds, “You can do a similar process with chemicals that are used in composites manufacturing. You can track the expiration time on it to alert you on the right time before it expires for you to take action. It can save a lot of chemicals, help you see what needs to be used at the right time and help you to both remain compliant and also to eliminate waste.”

AI and continuing innovation

In the case of Sekisui Aerospace, “They’ve come a long way for sure,” Agrawal says. “They’re confident with the Xemelgo technology, and they’ve been able to use the data it provides to iron out a lot of different wrinkles and improve their own processes as much as possible.”

In addition to continuing developments with Sekisui and other customers, Xemelgo is always working internally on new tools as well. One of the next big advancements to roll out will be an AI feature, Gross explains. “We’re developing AI-powered dashboards that will not only combine all of this information from the ERP plus real-time data from Xemelgo’s RFID system — as we do now — but to take it a step further and use AI to provide insights and help inform decisions. We’re also piloting an AI-powered chat, sort of like a ChatGPT type of experience, where leaders at a company or even customers could ask questions like ‘Which Boeing orders are in my layup department?’ and the chat will answer it automatically and securely.”

“The bottom line is that we’re not done innovating,” Gross adds. “Our team continues to build these tools out, by spending time on the factory floor with our customers. Sekisui is a great example of how our technology works in the composites industry, but also more generally of how when we all put our heads together with our customers, we can develop incredible solutions.”

Photocurable energetic material blend. Source: Supernova

Supernova (a spinoff of BCN3D) has created a new Defense and Space business unit that focuses on developing a proprietary additive manufacturing (AM) ecosystem for energetic materials. The company says this ecosystem is designed to overcome the limitations of traditional manufacturing processes and enhance the capabilities of produced components, striving for technological superiority in critical applications.

The business unit is part of the company’s long-term defense and space initiative in order to break new ground in the manufacturing technologies for those industries, with an initial focus on military-grade energetic materials. Target applications include solid rocket motors (SRMs), which are a critical component for the next-generation hypersonic platforms.

Supernova’s proprietary Viscous Lithography Manufacturing (VLM) technology is a lithography-based AM process that uses a transparent film to transfer high-viscosity materials onto a build platform, where they are cured by light to form 3D printed parts. Unlike conventional processes that require low-viscosity resins, VLM can handle materials with up to 100 times higher viscosity, which benefit from longer oligomer chains in the formulations, resulting in superior mechanical properties.

The company says that VLM is the first AM technology that has successfully proven its potential for processing military-grade materials such as APCP or RDX. Energetic materials are compounds capable of rapidly releasing significant amounts of energy through chemical reactions, commonly used in propellants and explosives. Military-grade formulations — such as APCP (Ammonium Perchlorate Composite Propellant) and RDX (Cyclotrimethylene trinitramine) — are highly effective and reliable. However, traditional processing techniques, ranging from casting to extrusion, impose severe geometric limitations, thereby hindering the effective technological advancement of certain components.

One of the key strengths of AM is the geometric freedom it offers. However, military-grade formulations often have solid loads exceeding 80%, making them unsuitable for processing with AM technologies. Supernova’s VLM has successfully demonstrated the ability to process formulations with more than 88% solid load, thereby overcoming this significant limitation to unleash the power of AM and create the next generation of military-grade components.

Process benefits include:

• High-energy density based on a superior solid load
• Stable and homogeneous component properties — starting from a uniform particle dispersion, with isotropic layers, and ensuring the absence of air gaps
• Geometry freedom in the component design
• Rapid prototyping to accelerate development
• On-demand and on-shore production

The initial applications identified to benefit from these value propositions include: SRMs - where the goal is to enhance combustion efficiency and develop custom thrust profiles; explosives - aiming to increase detonation performance in application-specific designs such as shaped charges; and bullet grains - with the objective of achieving higher velocity and reducing weight.

“Supernova Defense and Space represents our commitment to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible to manufacture,” says Roger Antunez, Supernova founder and CEO. “By pioneering 3D printing of energetic materials, we’re not just advancing technology, we’re providing the tools to the engineers to innovate and reshape the future of defense and space industries.”

The traditional approach of merely machining parts and sending them to a metal plater is outdated and should be left in the past. To achieve the highest quality, it’s essential to collaborate closely with every partner in your process chain, including surface finishing experts.

What are the current trends in surface finishing? Industry professionals are focusing on several key areas that shouldn’t come as a surprise.

GrayMatter Robotics provides artificial intelligence (AI)-driven software designed to enable robots to program themselves to perform surface finishing and surface prep operations for a wide variety of part sizes and shapes. Source: GrayMatter Robotics

1. AI, machine learning and IoT solutions

Much like other areas of manufacturing, finishers and coaters are seeking ways to streamline their processes. Today, finishers are increasingly exploring robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to tackle challenges such as workforce shortages, quality control and repeatability.

Historically, finishing operations have been slower to adopt IoT and automation solutions due to the high mix of parts typically processed by job shops, but various factors — including workforce trends and demands for environmentally responsible and sustainable processes — are accelerating the need to find new efficiencies.

Discover how one company is using AI to make finishing processes for a high mix of parts of varying geometries as easy as the push of a button. short.pfonline.com/graymatterAI

These lattice cubes were 3D printed from clear resin using stereolithography, then coated by RePliForm with electroless nickel, copper and layers of ductile and hard nickel to improve their compression performance. Source: Additive Manufacturing

2. 3D Printing

Additive manufacturing is growing exponentially. As this technology continues to move from the realm of R&D and short run production to full scale production, an increasing number of fabricators are looking to various finishing methodologies to not only protect parts or provide aesthetics but in some cases to increase functionality.

Check out a story about how one company is using electroplating to enhance the physical properties of additively manufactured parts. short.pfonline.com/repliform3D

EVs present exciting new opportunities for additional growth of the use of electroless nickel plating in the automotive market for several critical components. Source: Getty Images

3. Electroless Nickel Plating and EVs

The advent of electric vehicles (EVs) seems to have finally arrived. With a growing number of automotive OEMs investing in new capabilities to grow their EV and hybrid offerings, finishes will be needed for a range of parts from electrical motor components to batteries.

One example is electroless nickel (EN) plating. EN has been used in the automotive industry for decades. Applications include piston heads, carburetors and fuel injection components, slip yokes and transmission components. Today, EVs present exciting new opportunities for additional growth of EN in the automotive market with the finish being used for several critical components used in electric vehicles.

Learn more about the role EN is playing in the developing EV market: short.pfonline.com/ENandEV

Powder coating overspray can be reclaimed and reused. Source: Innovakote

4. Environmental Considerations

Contrary to some perceptions, environmental concerns are a priority in the finishing industry. As one of the most heavily regulated sectors in manufacturing, compliance is essential for the industry’s sustainability. For years, metal finishers have been engaged in negotiations with environmental groups to address issues related to air quality and wastewater treatment. The industry has been proactive in seeking alternatives to potentially harmful hexavalent chromium finishing technologies, exploring safer options like trivalent chromium-based processes. The evolving regulatory landscape will continue to influence the available finishing technologies and their application methods.

This Products Finishing Ask the Expert column, discusses the environmental considerations driving some of these regulations: short.pfonline.com/hextotrichrome

In terms of coatings, powder coating has always been a low volatile organic compound (VOC) approach to coating parts, and powder overspray is a reclaimable material. Despite its already environmentally-friendly nature, new ways of making powder coating even more sustainable are being explored.

Check out this story about two companies that have found novel approaches to reclaiming powder. short.pfonline.com/reclaimpowder

This 3 D printed radar array is PAEK plated with layers of copper and electroless nickel using a plating on plastic activation chemistry known as GreenPOP.  Source: Alliance Finishing and Manufacturing

5. Plating on Plastics

Plating on plastics (POP) isn’t new. Electroplating on plastic typically involves the process of depositing a thin layer of metal onto a plastic substrate using an electrochemical process after first preparing the plastic for the metal to adhere. Advances in plating on plastics, as well as the introduction of new materials aimed at producing lightweight parts are creating opportunities beyond traditional POP applications, which are often decorative in nature. Today, POP is being explored for use in diverse industries, including aerospace, automotive and electronics. The ability to electroplate on high-performance resins, lightweight composites and additively manufactured parts opens new avenues for innovation, making plating on plastic an option for enhancing functionality of parts in addition to providing esthetics.

Learn more about new innovations in plating on plastics: short.pfonline.com/GreenPOP

Finishing today and tomorrow

The finishing industry is integral to the broader manufacturing landscape. Consumer needs and buying trends shape not only what we produce but also the methods we use. To ensure the highest quality for your parts, engage with your surface finishing partners early in the production process. Leverage their expertise to achieve the best possible surface finish, aligning with industry standards and consumer expectations.

Source | Toray Advanced Composites

Toray Advanced Composites (TAC, Nijverdal, The Netherlands) has launched the Toray Cetex TC1130 PESU (PolyEtherSulphone) thermoplastic composite. This high-performance material is specifically engineered to address the growing need for lightweight and environmentally sustainable materials in aircraft interior applications.

Suited for monolithic and thermoplastic-based sandwich panel constructions, Toray Cetex TC1130 PESU continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composite enables the creation of mono-material sandwich structures when combined with core materials of the same chemistry. Compared to materials currently used, this not only achieves additional weight savings and cost-effective postprocessing, but also ensures fully recyclable homogeneous sandwich structures, according to the company. Additionally, Toray Cetex TC1130 offers optimal fire, smoke and toxicity (FST) performance, high impact resistance and toughness, which are essential for demanding interior applications.

Marc Huisman, director research and development, Toray Advanced Composites Europe, states: “As a leading material supplier, we understand the challenges faced by the aerospace industry to achieve full circularity.” Toray’s global technical and commercial teams are ready to support immediate demand for Toray Cetex TC1130.

For more info, view the TC1130 data sheet.

Source | Uavos

Uavos (Mountain View, Calif., U.S.) announces that it has developed a new version of its carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) rotor blade for helicopters with up to 140 kilograms of takeoff mass. The retrofit blades, which offer reduced maintenance and higher performance than previous options include a leading edge with stainless steel, high twist distributions and a modern airfoil. The metal leading edge improves protection when operating in sand, rain, saltwater and other harsh environments.

The blades were designed with multiple prepreg layers, each of which is applied in a specific pattern and orientation and cured in an oven. Uavos says that its technology ensures maximized strength and matches the mechanical properties of the composite design, delivering blades with an improved production cycle, reduced initial and life cycle operating costs, as well as fuel savings and performance gains.

“Rotor blades are subjected to the toughest stresses during operation,” says Aliaksei Stratsilatau, CEO of Uavos. “They must be able to withstand any weather conditions. For this reason, the highest quality requirements apply to the manufacturing process — especially to the materials.”

Uavos’ capabilities include bringing a rotor blade project through preliminary design, prototyping, bench testing, test certification and manufacturing. The company’s facilities include a composites fabrication shop, a fatigue test rig capable of testing blades, a CNC machine shop, ovens, a heated press, automatic ply cutting and a large material freezer, enabling Uavos to develop rotor blades internally quickly.

“The Uavos OEM program shows our commitment to innovation and next-generation programs for the unmanned platforms,” adds Stratsilatau. “As an OEM provider and UAV operator, Uavos continues to push the envelope to find new and reliable solutions.”

Carbon fiber drone propeller. Source | Mitsui Chemicals Inc.

AZL Aachen GmbH (Aachen, Germany) announces the launch of a new Joint Partner Project focusing on the further growth potential and technology developments for composite propellers in the field of air mobility, as well as for composite rotors for small- to medium-sized wind energy systems.

The 9-month consortial industry project will investigate current and future composite applications for propellers and rotors and their requirements, provide technological insights and develop new product concepts and evaluate them in terms of economic efficiency. Interested companies can join the project consortium until the project’s kick-off on Sept. 18, 2024. 

“Propellers and Rotors” aims to address the growing demand for efficient, powerful and compact composite propellers and rotors for the growing markets of air mobility and decentralized power generation. Although the application, manufacturing and material technologies for propellers and rotors made of composite materials have proven to be technically mature, they have so far mainly been used in the high-performance sector for large-propeller aircraft and large wind turbines. Due to the increasing interest in efficient electric propulsion system in the field of air mobility — e.g., air taxis or parcel delivery drones, as well as for decentralized energy generation with the help of small/medium-sized wind energy systems — a rising demand for these components and their production volumes are expected.

“With uprising technologies for cost-efficient flying vehicles and new possibilities for off-grid energy generation, innovative materials have the potential to play a crucial role,” says Inoue Hiroki, senior technical expert liaison group at Mitsui Chemicals Inc. (Tokyo, Japan). “Propeller and rotors are key components in these sectors and can enhance their efficiency significantly. As a provider of composite materials, we already have experience in the field of drones and propellers, and we think that we can contribute to these technologies and future production concepts effectively. However, it is essential to gain a deeper understanding of the market potential, technological potential, design principles and challenges involved. Like in previous AZL Joint Partner Projects, we aim to gain valuable insights into the market and technology.”

AZL will bring together experts along the entire value chain in the project to analyze current and future product concepts. During the project, the participating companies will gain a comprehensive understanding of composite propeller and rotor technology. The project team will carry out a detailed screening of current and future technologies, investigate different materials and processes for the production of propellers and rotors and elaborate design options, as well as analyze and evaluate them in terms of technological and cost-effective criteria.

The requirements and expertise of the developers and manufacturers of aircraft and wind energy systems will be combined with the manufacturing and materials expertise of the AZL network for high-performance materials. In addition, the project will assess the costs and carbon footprint of alternative designs and production concepts to ensure a holistic approach to support the business and technology development of the project participants along the value chain.