IRIDA

Industrialisation of Out-of-Autoclave Manufacturing for Integrated Aerostructures

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'One of the major challenges of the aeronautical industry is the reduction of manufacturing cost, while maintaining high standards of safety and supporting the “greening” of the air transport section. During the last decade the industry has turned to advanced composite materials to achieve its goals. While in the 1970's and 1980's, composites were adopted for aerospace structures for increased performance and weight savings, the 1990's and 2000's witnessed the attention towards cost-effective fabrication. Today the industry is looking into alternatives to autoclave processing in order to cut down cost and reduce the environmental footprint. The term Out-of-Autoclave manufacturing was introduced to describe this industrial need. The IRIDA project aims to provide an answer to this need by developing on a technology that is proven and reliable yet innovative. The IRIDA concept is based on the FIBRETEMP technology for heated CFRP moulds for LCM/LRI techniques. According to this technology the mould is heated through its carbon fibre reinforcements that act as heating elements. The results are reduced energy consumption as the thermal mass of these tools is very low, even temperature distribution and decreased process cycles. IRIDA will set out to develop a complete manufacturing technique able to produce aerospace quality composites with properties comparable to that of autoclave cured parts. The workplan foreseen intents to investigate all aspects of composite processing and achieve reliability, accuracy and repeatability of the process. State-of-the-art monitoring and control systems will be employed in order to accomplish these goals. The ultimate objective of the project will be to construct a mould for the fabrication of a real aircraft part (engine nacelle) and produce a demonstrator part. In a sentence, IRIDA will develop, apply and verify a viable Out-of-Autoclave manufacturing solution and pave the way for its industrialisation.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Autoclaves are industrial processing tools that reach very high pressures and temperatures. They use lots of energy to do this so novel out-of-autoclave technology to produce aircraft composites promises major cost and environmental benefits.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Reducing the environmental impact of air travel makes a major contribution to minimising climate change because the global aerospace industry is huge. Industrial attention originally focused on developing novel composite parts with high strength and low weight as alternatives to metals. Lighter weight reduces fuel consumption and associated emissions. Having developed high-performing components, research turned to simultaneously reducing manufacturing costs and environmental impact.

Scientists are exploring the potential of a novel technology to produce aerospace-quality composites with significantly less energy in the EU-funded project 'Industrialisation of out-of-autoclave manufacturing for integrated aerostructures' (IRIDA). Autoclave processing uses high temperatures and pressures to produce composites, particularly carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) ones. FibreTemp technology is an out-of-autoclave manufacturing technique that electrically heats big composite moulds through their carbon fibre reinforcements. In addition to the even temperature distributions and decreased process cycle time (fast heating and cooling), FibreTemp facilitates proven dimensional stability of both the mould and the manufactured part.

IRIDA investigated all aspects of composite processing to enable a reliable, accurate and repeatable technique. Researchers studied various materials for the process tools to ensure endurance in the face of repeated heating and cooling cycles. Based on insight, they designed a liquid resin infusion CFRP tool with self-heating capabilities and an integrated cooling system. The infusion process was then simulated for various resin flow conditions. In the end, the team manufactured an aircraft engine nacelle, a large and complex aircraft part, using the FibreTemp technology.

Researchers have demonstrated the potential of the out-of-autoclave manufacturing technique to produce complex aircraft components from low-weight composites using a much more energy-efficient process. While the process for such parts needs optimisation, application to less complex parts is close to commercialisation. Technologies developed along the way for process monitoring and control, analysis, simulation and integration represent important opportunities for exploitation and strengthening of the EU manufacturing community.

The need for greener air transport and increasing competition should ensure that IRIDA technology receives a warm welcome from the aerospace sector. Surface and sea transport stand to benefit from adoption of the technology as well.