Heraeus Noblelight participating in FRAMES
October 09, 2020 - United Kingdom
Heraeus Noblelight is participating in FRAMES, a project part of Clean Sky 2 - the largest European research programme for developing innovative, cutting-edge technology to reduce carbon dioxide and noise emissions by aircrafts. Under the project, thermoplastic composites are being investigated for a lightweight aircraft rear fuselage and empennage.
The FRAMES applied research project will run for 2.5 years. FRAMES stands for Fibre Reinforced Thermoplastics Manufacturing for Stiffened, Complex, Doubled Curved Structure.
Torsten Jenek, head of Innovation Optics and Flash at Heraeus Noblelight, commented: “Heraeus acknowledges its environmental responsibility. Carbon composites contribute to more sustainable air travel and the reduction of CO2 footprint. Heraeus’ humm3 technology is perfectly suited to scale carbon composite Automated Fibre Placement (AFP) processes to large volumes required for future aircraft. Heraeus is proud to be part of that.”
Expansion in passenger traffic has presented new opportunities for the airline industry whilst also placing before the industry the challenge of reducing the carbon dioxide emissions. Commercial fleets are aging, and the demands of operators, passengers and legislators are driving improvements in aircraft efficiency and comfort. The fuselage of the next generation of large passenger aircrafts will rely on the benefits of thermoplastic composites. Improved lightweight composites that incorporate strength and toughness, recycling potential and faster production cycles will enable the capacity to meet the future aviation challenges.
Composites are increasingly being used in the aerospace industry, as they help contribute to lighter aircraft and consequently help reduce fuel consumption and emissions. The manufacturing of complex forms of aircraft rear end section with continuous fibre-reinforced thermoplastics still poses a considerable challenge of high processing temperatures, raw material costs, complex temperature-controlled tooling and evolutive cross section.
The main objective of the FRAMES project is to validate and assess a manufacturing approach for an integral thermoplastic rear end with critical design features. Key technologies developed within FRAMES project will be deployed into mid-scale advanced rear end demonstrator manufactured by the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), part of a Clean Sky 2 technology platform for large passenger aircraft. The consortium is seeking to bring reliable and competitive industrial solutions for intelligent heating systems for automated lay up.
Heraeus Noblelight will be leading the development of a combined optical-thermal simulation tool for fibre placement with a Xenon Flash heating device such as humm3, enabling fast lay up.
ESTIA-Compositadour will lead the project, perform fibre placement trials and support the DLR during manufacturing and delivery of rear end demonstrator.
The FRAMES applied research project will run for 2.5 years. FRAMES stands for Fibre Reinforced Thermoplastics Manufacturing for Stiffened, Complex, Doubled Curved Structure.
Torsten Jenek, head of Innovation Optics and Flash at Heraeus Noblelight, commented: “Heraeus acknowledges its environmental responsibility. Carbon composites contribute to more sustainable air travel and the reduction of CO2 footprint. Heraeus’ humm3 technology is perfectly suited to scale carbon composite Automated Fibre Placement (AFP) processes to large volumes required for future aircraft. Heraeus is proud to be part of that.”
Expansion in passenger traffic has presented new opportunities for the airline industry whilst also placing before the industry the challenge of reducing the carbon dioxide emissions. Commercial fleets are aging, and the demands of operators, passengers and legislators are driving improvements in aircraft efficiency and comfort. The fuselage of the next generation of large passenger aircrafts will rely on the benefits of thermoplastic composites. Improved lightweight composites that incorporate strength and toughness, recycling potential and faster production cycles will enable the capacity to meet the future aviation challenges.
Composites are increasingly being used in the aerospace industry, as they help contribute to lighter aircraft and consequently help reduce fuel consumption and emissions. The manufacturing of complex forms of aircraft rear end section with continuous fibre-reinforced thermoplastics still poses a considerable challenge of high processing temperatures, raw material costs, complex temperature-controlled tooling and evolutive cross section.
The main objective of the FRAMES project is to validate and assess a manufacturing approach for an integral thermoplastic rear end with critical design features. Key technologies developed within FRAMES project will be deployed into mid-scale advanced rear end demonstrator manufactured by the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), part of a Clean Sky 2 technology platform for large passenger aircraft. The consortium is seeking to bring reliable and competitive industrial solutions for intelligent heating systems for automated lay up.
Heraeus Noblelight will be leading the development of a combined optical-thermal simulation tool for fibre placement with a Xenon Flash heating device such as humm3, enabling fast lay up.
ESTIA-Compositadour will lead the project, perform fibre placement trials and support the DLR during manufacturing and delivery of rear end demonstrator.