New method employed after three years of experimentation to produce lightweight composite components for airliner

EADS Military Aircraft has begun manufacturing A380 parts at its Augsburg, Germany, plant using a newly patented method for quicker and more cost-effective production of lightweight composite components, known as the vacuum assisted process (VAP).

Augsburg is the aircraft's largest supplier of structural components outside Airbus, which is 80%-owned by EADS.

VAP eliminates the need for autoclaves - the standard method for curing composite components - and, EADS says, "fits perfectlyfor the rapid and cost-efficient production of particularly large components". It is being used for the production of panels for the wing flap tracks of the A380 as well as for Eurofighter components.

Wolfgang Schr"der, responsible for materials and structural technology projects at EADS Military Aircraft, says these parts are made with resin-free, non-crimp fabric, which provides much greater stiffness than the standard resin pre-impregnated fabric. He adds that the non-crimp fabric is much thicker - 0.5mm (0.02in) or more - than the standard fabric (0.1mm), "so we need fewer layers of material and you don't need high pressure and 180°C [356°F] to cure it, you can just cure it by creating a vacuum and 180°C. Hence our VAP system," he says.

Schr"der says the material is draped into the mould and then infused with resin before being cured. The procedure allows large parts, such as a 3m-diameter bulkhead for a single-aisle aircraft, to be moulded in one piece.

The VAP has been in experimentation at the plant for three years but it is being used in a series production for the first time with the A380. "We expect a 30% price reduction," Schr"der says, in addition to a weight of "10-50% depending on the part".

The new system will not, however, be applied to another major Airbus project, the A400M military transport aircraft, as the Augsburg factory's workshare is for aluminium parts.

CHRISTINA MACKENZIE / PARIS

Source: Flight International