Archived Aerospace Sector News - Pre-2007
Out-Of-Autoclave (OOA) Prepreg Development - March 2006
(Reprinted by permission of Ray Publishing Inc. from "Autoclave Quality Outside the Autoclave?" a feature article appearing in the March 2006 issue of High-Performance Composites magazine. Copyright 2006 Ray Publishing Inc.)
High quality aerodynamic surfaces are the result of The New Piper Aircraft Inc.'s ( Vero Beach , Florida ) utilisation of oven-cured prepregs for the exterior fairings of its Meridian and Malibu aircraft. Piper wanted to reduce weight and improve surface finish of these fairings, which previously were made using wet lay up techniques. Cost targets for the new design were met by selecting oven curing over the autoclave, recalls David Nesbitt, president of Matrix Composites Inc. (Rockledge , Fla.), which designed and manufactures the fairings for Piper. "In autoclave machine time and reduced process materials cost, there is an estimated 25% decrease in overall part price," Nesbitt says, "the tooling is easier and less expensive to fabricate as well".
A prepreg designed for oven cure was a key technology for achieving the required surface quality without incurring large secondary finishing costs. Using Advanced Composite Group Inc.'s (Tulsa, Oklahoma) LTM®24ST single-side film prepreg, which consists of T-300 carbon 2x2 twill with epoxy resin, "We are achieving as-moulded surface finishes that are comparable to those achieved using the autoclave process," Nesbitt reports. "Surface porosity has been eliminated, reducing the post operation time required to produce a high-quality painted surface."
LTM®24ST is fully capable of meeting the performance demands for these lightly loaded fairings, says ACG's aerospace market sector manager Chris Ridgard, who readily admits that this prepreg's out life, toughness, porosity and mechanical performance are not designed for highly loaded structures. But the company's new generation of oven-cured prepregs are so designed, he reports. In its development efforts for high-performance applications, ACG learned lessons about the differences between prepregs targeted for the oven versus the autoclave.
"We mistakenly believed in the early days that low viscosity was a good thing for oven cure," Ridgard recalls. But with low viscosity, the resin can flow prematurely and lock off escape paths for entrapped air and volatiles, which are critical for out-of-autoclave processing. By comparison, these gases will dissolve into the resin under autoclave pressures. These same distinctions mean that the degree of impregnation is far more critical in oven-cure than in autoclave prepregs, and impregnation must be more carefully controlled.
ACG's latest prepreg lines, MTM®45-1 and MTM®46, are producing fibre volumes equivalent to autoclave prepregs and near-zero void content under oven processing conditions, Ridgard reports. Both product lines offer a minimum cure temperature of 82°C. MTM®45-1 is designed for maximum wet-service temperature of 121°C while the less expensive MTM®46 has a maximum wet service temperature of 82°C. Under a contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory (Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio ) and in collaboration with the NASA/FAA National Center for Advanced Materials Performance (NCAMP) programme, ACG is developing B-basis values for these two products, using an approach similar to the Federal Aviation Administration's AGATE (Advanced General Aviation Technology Experiment) methodology.
For further details contact ACG Sales Department.
All Composites For 210mph Four Seat FX-210 - March 2006
Four Winds of Florida (USA) have designed the FX-210 and FX-250 to be amongst the fastest and most versatile kit airplanes available.
Throughout the plane's development Four Winds' goal was always to make one of the safest and best airplanes in the industry, employing the most advanced composite materials and technology.
The streamlined yet spacious fuselage has been designed, tooled and built exclusively using composite prepreg materials supplied by ACG Inc, Tulsa.
ACG has worked with Four Winds for the last 6 years, supporting their projects through the supply of specifically developed composite materials and wide ranging technical assistance. During this time their superb kit airplanes have literally 'taken off'! ACG's ranges of low (LTM®) and variable (VTM®) temperature curing materials are ideal for such large structures.
With excellent processability and mechanical performance, these products combine the benefit of low temperature cures, with Tg developments that step well ahead of cure temperature.
For the FX-210 and FX-250, VTM®240 series prepregs are used to build the complete aircraft structure, fuselage, wings and control surfaces. LTM®30 series prepregs are supplied for reliable tooling that is compatible with the composite structures made from them.
Prepreg materials have eliminated so much of the mess of wet lay up that it is now even more desirable to build your own airplane, and Four Winds specialise in assistance with customer build programmes.
For more information visit the Four Winds web site at: www.fourwinds.com.
For further details contact ACG Sales Department.
Globalflyer Achieves Second Record - February 2006
The record breaking Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer completed its 19,880 nautical mile Around the World flight on March 3rd 2005. Then on 11 February 2006 it was announced that Steve Fossett received the Guinness World Record for the Longest Non Stop flight along with Richard Branson's praise of his remarkable achievements. Although an electrical malfunction shortened the flight by 45 minutes the facts are that a total flight distance of 26,389.3 miles was covered in 76 hours and 45 minutes. The all composite structure withstood a challenging take off from Kennedy Space Centre, severe turbulence over India and ice as Steve Fossett prepared to land, first at Kent International Airport and then at Bournemouth Airport.
Designed by Burt Rutan and manufactured by Scaled Composites (California), the GlobalFlyer was produced by the same team behind the X-Prize winning SpaceShipOne. Although both high-profile projects were well funded, the use of ACG's LTM® prepregs enabled both cost and manufacturing time to be kept to a minimum, whilst at the same time guaranteeing structural performance. The aircraft has a 114ft wing span giving 400 sq.ft of wing area. When fully fuelled the aircraft is 83% fuel by weight, a record in its own right no doubt. The carbon/epoxy LTM® prepreg materials used for the structure of this aircraft compliment the aerodynamics and configuration of Rutan's design, the stiffest carbon fibre prepregs being used in the wing construction.
The Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer is an outstanding aircraft that has brought together innovative design and the most advanced composite materials technology to achieve two extraordinary world records. For more information on this remarkable aircraft go to the Virgin GlobalFlyer web site: www.virginatlanticglobalflyer.com
For further details contact ACG Sales Department.
Unique Aerospace Projects Use LTM - October 2005
Scaled Composites and ACG are linked through two unique aerospace projects, GlobalFlyer and SpaceShipOne. The Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, designed and built by Scaled Composites, California , completed a record non-stop flight around the world of 19,880 nautical miles on 3 March 2005.
The main structures of this 35m wingspan aircraft were manufactured entirely using LTM45 series composite prepreg materials provided by Advanced Composites Group Inc. These materials are ideal for such one-off projects because of their low temperature, out-of-autoclave cure capabilities and have proved their performance on other aircraft built by Scaled Composites.
Another unique aircraft, also built by Scaled Composites using ACG's out of autoclave technology, is SpaceShipOne. Last October it successfully met all the conditions required to win the prestigious X Prize. In July 2005 it was announced that Burt Rutan (President, Scaled Composites) and Sir Richard Branson (founder, Virgin Group Companies) have formed The Spaceship Company to jointly manufacture and market spaceships for the new sub-orbital personal spaceflight industry. This follows on from the launch of Virgin Galactic, the company that will license the technology to develop the world's first privately funded spaceships to carry commercial passengers on space flights.
Image courtesy of Scaled Composites.
For further details contact ACG Sales Department.
ACG in ALCAS - October 2005
Structures), the objective of which is to develop the next generation of low-cost, lightweight aircraft structures from advanced composite materials.
Financially supported under the European 6th Framework Research & Development Initiative, ALCAS, which commenced in February of this year, comprises 59 partner organisations engaged in a 4-year collaborative programme. The project is lead by Airbus UK, with almost all the main European aerospace prime and tier 1 manufacturers participating, together with a wide variety of test and design organisations, research establishments and universities.
The primary objectives of the programme are to reduce the weight, and therefore the operating costs, of the next generation of both large civil airliners and business jets through the cost effective, full application of carbon fibre composites to the aircraft primary structures.
ACG are working in the business jet section of the project, which is lead by Dassault Aviation and includes major aerospace companies such as SAAB, Alenia, CASA and Stork-Fokker. Within this part of the programme, ACG will be designing and manufacturing composite tooling for both the rear fuselage section and the wing of a Dassault Falcon series aircraft. In addition to the tooling activities, which will call upon knowledge and expertise acquired during the FUBACOMP project, ACG will also design and manufacture structural components, such as the lower wing covers and rear engine mounting frame. These parts will be manufactured using ACG's latest aerospace matrix resin systems, such as MTM®44-1 and MVR444, developed during the course of earlier collaborative projects such as CASCADE.
Project work in ACG will utilise the resources and facilities of both the ACG Technology Centre and ACC.
For further details contact ACG Sales Department.
SpaceShipOne Makes Historic Space Flight - October 2004
The Scaled Composites team made history on October 4th 2004 by flying the first ever commercial aircraft and pilot into space twice within the space of two weeks while carrying the equivalent weight of two passengers. The rocket powered SpaceShipOne, piloted by Brian Binnie, and the White Knight carrier plane, were built at the Mojave, California facility of Scaled Composites. This flight, together with the previous flight by pilot Mike Melvill on September 29th, met the conditions required to win the prestigious X prize. The project, known as Tier 1, was started in 2001 with funding from investor Paul G. Allen. Burt Rutan, founder of Scaled Composites and designer of SpaceShipOne, can now add another world-first achievement in aviation to several records already under his belt.
The airframe of SpaceShipOne was built using LTM45®EL prepregs manufactured by the Advanced Composites Group (ACG) in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The low temperature curing, high service temperature prepregs permit the use of low cost tooling and manufacturing techniques and have been successfully used by Scaled Composites and others for a number of years to build prototype and limited production aircraft. ACG is in the process of introducing the next generation of low temperature cure prepregs, including a material known as MTM®45, which will deliver improved performance while still permitting cure at low temperatures. The material will also be supported by a full design data set which is being produced with oversight and approval by the FAA. Further information on these and other products may be found in our catalogue.
For further details contact ACG Sales Department.
SpaceShipOne - June 2004
The Advanced Composites Group is pleased to be a part of the Paul Allen/Scaled Composites team in the development of the first private manned space capability, as a supplier of our LTM45®EL composite prepreg materials. Scaled selected our LTM prepreg product, manufactured in Tulsa Oklahoma, to enhance their goal of developing a safe space vehicle at the minimum possible flight operating cost. We look forward to furthering our participation that will lead to a new industry of affordable space tourism.
"The LTM45®EL prepreg materials used to build SpaceShipOne met our specifications and allowed us to meet our goals", said Burt Rutan, at the event that demonstrated the emergence of privately-developed manned space flight capability.
For further details contact ACG Sales Department.
New Products Employed on Snecma Jet Engine Test Nacelles - March 2004
ACG Applied Technology Engineers have worked closely with Duqueine Composites (Massieux, France) supporting them in the construction of a large composite jet engine test bench.
Manufactured for their customer, Techspace Aero (a subsidiary of SNECMA Group), Duqueine designed the substantial composite structure and worked closely with ACG in defining a novel manufacturing process to achieve it.
Using Aluminium moulds, the components have been built, depending on the required ultimate service temperature, from a combination of ACG's VTM®260, VTM®240, LTM®310 series and ZPREG® materials. Common properties to all these products is their ability to cure at 65°C initially and produce large "out-of-autoclave" structures, with low void contents and excellent surface finishes. The products' room temperature outlives range up to 30 days and offer maximum dry service temperatures as high as 180°C.
ACG manufactured six different composite material formats for the project and provided on-site support engineering during the most testing period of the build. The project has proved a great success, demonstrating Duqueine Composites' design, project engineering and manufacturing talents. It is also an excellent example of how ACG products are frequently tailored in manufacturing to meet the customers' specific demands in terms of composite processing and design.
For further details contact ACG Sales Department.
Shared Database Generation for Certified Aircraft Structures - March 2004
The Advanced Composites Group is in the process of generating A and B basis allowable property data on several materials using the latest methodology and guidelines developed in the United States and supported by the FAA and Mil Handbook 17.
This involves the generation of data by a material supplier in accordance with nationally accepted guidelines and subject to independent inspection and verification. The advantage of this approach, which is an extension of that originally developed by the AGATE consortium involving the FAA, NASA and material suppliers, is that a single test plan is used to qualify a material and generate a database that is shared with multiple end users. This avoids the costly and unnecessary situation where the same material is subject to the same or similar tests several times over to satisfy similar qualification requirements with each end user.
FAA accepted data is already available on woven fabric prepregs based on ACG's 180°C (356°F) curing toughened epoxy resin system, HTM®45. Additional data on a variety of woven carbon, unidirectional carbon, woven E glass and woven quartz is being generated on the 80°C-120°C (176-248°F) oven/vacuum bag curable resin system MTM®45 under a US Air Force funded program called Low Temperature Cure Composites. Further data generation on MTM®49, an oven/vacuum bag curable 120°C (248°F) cure material is also planned. All such data will be public domain and will ultimately be submitted for approval by the FAA and for publication in Mil Handbook 17. ACG is strongly supportive of these new initiatives, which will lower the cost of qualification for material suppliers and will result in lower cost materials for manufacture of certified aircraft structures.
For further details contact ACG Sales Department.
VTM Technology Enables Significant Mass Saving on the Magnum Aircraft - March 2004
Over last two years Advanced Composites Group Ltd has been collaborating with Aviation Enterprises Ltd (AEL) in a EU supported project to assist small companies in developing and adopting new technologies.
Several components on the Magnum aircraft were targeted for improvement in damage tolerance and mass saving. These were typically structures such as undercarriage and wings. Originally designed and developed with vacuum consolidated wet lay-up, the components were re-designed using VTM®264 resin system with unidirectional and woven carbon prepregs. As a result significant mass savings and improvements in impact performance have been achieved.
Mr Angus Fleming, Managing Director, of AEL commented that the VTM technology has enabled his company to move into the prepreg technology without the necessary capital expenditure required for higher temperature cure prepregs.
As a result of the project the complete aircraft has now been re-designed in VTM®264 prepregs. This has lead to a significant increase in performance and very significant mass savings. As a result the Magnum can now be considered a strong competitor in the general aviation light aircraft market.
For further details contact ACG Sales Department.
Lightweight Armour Development - March 2004
ACG has recently developed a manufacturing technique for the production of a ceramic faced composite, which has proved highly successful in reducing the weight of armour and increasing its performance against armour-piercing projectiles.
Traditional steel armour, while adequate, has a high mass and is increasingly impractical in today's highly mobile military arena.
ACG's unique armour solution has proven in some instances to be 60% lighter than equivalent steel armour.
Applications on both aircraft and land vehicles are currently under development and will be reported on in future Technology Centre Reports.
For further details contact ACG Sales Department.
Composite Wing for Cross Channel Freefall Pilot - March 2004
The renowned German daredevil Felix Baumgartner last year became the first person to freefall across the English channel.
Baumgartner, steering a 1.8m carbon composite wing, jumped from a plane 9,800m above Dover (at -42°C) and before reaching Calais, 8 minutes 20 seconds later, had reached a top speed of 360km/h.
The carbon wing, manufactured by composite specialists CarboTech Composites GmbH (Salzburg), was produced from Advanced Composites Group's MTM®49-3 prepreg.
Both CarboTech and MTM®49-3 have established reputations for reliable performance on structures in the Formula One and Automotive industries. However, nothing quite as novel as this application springs to mind!
For further details contact ACG Sales Department.
Martin-Baker Signs Further Materials Contract - September 2003
Advanced Composites Group and Martin-Baker, the world leading supplier of ejector seats and escape systems, have signed a 5 year supply contract. ACG have supplied their materials to MB for ejector seat components for many years and are proud to continue their involvement. The latest models are being supplied to such as the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Joint Strike Fighter, two of the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world. To date, 7013 pilots have been saved by the deployment of their MB ejector seat, 40 of whom ejected this year.
For further details contact ACG Sales Department.
DTI Funding to Provide Support for Precimould Plus Project - July 2003
£1.4 million of DTI support to the PRECIMOULD PLUS project led by Finite Element Analysis Ltd (FEA) and Advanced Composites Group Ltd (ACG) has been announced recently by Alan Johnson, UK Industry Minister. This project, which held the launch meeting in June, will run until March 2006. During the project a Finite Element Analysis tool will be developed to allow design engineers operating CAD packages including CATIA, and CADDS5 to easily predict and remove distortion from components. A database of material properties, for master moulds, tooling, and component resin and fibre combinations will be constructed by ACG to form the basic building block of the predictive software development of FEA.
Advanced Composites Group Ltd will provide their background knowledge and expertise in composite materials, processes, tooling, testing, and metrology to the project. Finite Element Analysis Ltd will develop the LUSAS finite element software. The industrial relevance of the developed package will be assured by partners Bombardier Aerospace of Belfast and BAe Systems who will contribute and evaluate the technical developments.
The benefits expected from the developed technology include: design confidence to predict and remove distortion, reduction of scrap, reduction of rework, and improved assembly costs. By integration of the analysis software in the design package competent design engineers will be able to extract master model and tooling surfaces "right first time" which will significantly improve the time to market cycle.
This research continues to show how improvements are still possible to the accuracy of manufacturing advanced structures and components with significant cost saving potential. The expanding application and use of composite materials in transportation applications will also provide environmental benefits to the environment by reducing fuel consumption and emissions.
For further details contact ACG Sales Department.
Group Achieves AS9100 Rev a:2001 - June 2003
Following Advanced Composites Group's approval to the International Aerospace Standard AS9100 in July 2001 and the addition of British Aerospace 'Design Approval' (BAe/AG/QC/SCI part 4) in November 2001, ACG have now achieved both BS EN ISO 9001:2000 and AS91000 Rev A:2001 qualifications.
As a leading supplier to the aerospace industry with over 15 years experience of aerospace applications ACG saw these qualifications as paramount to further strengthening their ability to offer real solutions to design engineering problems that are both cost effective and time saving. Following eighteen months of detailed work with both Customers and the Assessment body (Lloyds Register Quality Assurance), at both their UK and US manufacturing divisions, system enhancements were put in place to help achieve this latest qualification.
ACG also took this opportunity to further extend their scope of approval adding mechanical and physical testing of composite materials to its existing wide ranging scope already covering pattern, tooling and component design and manufacture; manufacture of composite materials plus related ancillary products; sale and marketing of tooling block plus related ancillary products.
For further details contact ACG Sales Department.
ACG Participates in Collaborative Projects - February 2003
ACG is participating in a major UK aerospace research programme, supported by the DTI. The DTI 'CARAD' (Civil Aerospace Research & Development) funding scheme matches industry contributions for research programmes designed to advanced UK technology and capability in the civil aircraft supply chain.
Lead by Airbus UK, this 2-year project (acronym CASCADE - Civil Aircraft Structural Composites - Application, Development and Exploitation) will carry out pre-competitive R&D with the aim of producing lower cost, high performance primary aircraft structures from composite materials. Alongside Airbus and ACG, other participating organisations are QinetiQ, W&J Tod and INBIS.
ACG's role within this project is to carry out research into novel composite materials tailored to allow low cost manufacture of both the tooling and the final component. Having considerable experience and expertise in developing composite solutions over the past 20 years, ACG are uniquely placed to make a major contribution to the project.
For further details contact ACG Sales Department.
QinetiQ 1 Altitude Record Attempt - October 2002
Unfortunately Britain's capricious weather has prevented the launch of QinetiQ1. After being on standby for most of the summer the team has had to accept that a launch will not now be possible until Spring next year.
This is an artist's impression of QinetiQ 1, the helium filled balloon that will attempt to exceed the manned flight altitude record during summer 2002. QinetiQ 1 is expected to soar to a height of over 130,000ft (25 miles) and into the earth's stratosphere. At sea level the height of the balloon will be 7 times greater than that of Nelson's Column, while at its maximum altitude the balloon's volume will reach 40 million cubic feet. ACG's LTM® structural prepreg materials are being employed extensively on this project in the construction of the flight deck of QinetiQ 1. Vacuum only processed at initial cure temperatures of 50-70°C, LTM® products have enabled the design team to use high performance products without the need for expensive tooling, and any compromise on mechanical performance.
For further details contact ACG Sales Department.
FAA Approved Agate Material Database - July 2002
Advanced Composites Group has released a report containing B-basis design allowable lamina properties on two woven carbon fibre fabric prepregs based on the HTM45 toughened epoxy prepreg resin system. The data were generated in accordance with the AGATE protocol and are approved for design usage by the US Federal Aviation Administration. Under guidelines established by the FAA, such approved databases remove the need to execute a traditional 3 or 5 batch qualification programme for each new end user. Instead, a small inexpensive test programme is conducted on a single batch of material to verify that the new end user's process results in equivalent properties and performance and to permit the use of the existing approved design data.
The approved data is freely available from Advanced Composites Group upon request, and free support is provided in respect of airworthiness and related issues. Advanced Composites Group plans to generate additional FAA approved AGATE data on HTM45 and other prepreg resins, in unidirectional, woven and multiaxial formats, including both lamina and laminate design properties. This new approach to airworthiness certification of materials greatly eases the introduction of new materials compared with the traditional approach, is expected to become the norm for future material qualifications for commercial aircraft, and is also likely to be considered for military applications.
For further details contact ACG Sales Department.
ACG Achieves AS9100 - May 2002
ACG pride itself on putting the Customer first and strives to continually improve its Quality System, products and processes in order to ensure that they always meet or exceed both the needs of the Organisation and those of its Customers.
Improvement efforts over the last year, spearheaded by Alan Moore, Managing Director, have ensured increased product quality and Customer satisfaction. 2001 also heralded further improvement milestones for ACG's Quality System when in July ACG achieved approval to the International Aerospace Standard AS9100 (prEN 9100) in accordance with SBAC ASCS TS 157 issue 4, and November saw ACG add 'Design Approval' (Bae/AG/QC/SCI part 4) to their current comprehensive listing of British Aerospace Approvals.
2002 is not short of improvement targets. ACG have been working closely with both our Customers and our Assessment body (LRQA) in order to ensure that further improvements, currently being installed for the recently amended ISO 9001:2000 and AS9100 rev 'A', benefit all involved.
For further details contact ACG Sales Department.
HTM®45 for Flight Structures - May 2002
The aerospace materials market has a new system to consider for use in structural applications. ACG's HTM®45 is a controlled flow, damage tolerant prepreg matrix, formulated primarily for use with intermediate modulus carbon fibre for the manufacture of primary aircraft structures.
Excellent retention of compression properties up to 150°C (302°F) wet makes HTM®45 suitable for use with a wide variety of reinforcement formats (unidirectional and woven) for both military and civil applications.
Cure flexibility is key to the manufacture of complex structures where innovative tooling may be required. HTM®45 can be cured at temperatures between 120°C (248°F) and 180°C (356°F), maximising the flexibility of materials and process engineers. ACG HTM®45 prepregs are available in a wide range of reinforcing fabrics and unidirectional tapes including glass, carbon, aramid and hybrids. The HTM®45 product range is available from both ACG's UK and US sites. The product is currently undergoing qualification evaluation and importantly also has the advantage of having an AGATE database available for use by designers and enabling single batch qualifications to be a real potential.
For further details contact ACG Sales Department.