JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #46 - January/February 2009 - 11

in partnership with JEC Composites E-letter NRC Aerospace: a structure at the heart of the Canadian aerospace industry For 50 years now, NRC Aerospace has played a central role in aerospace research and has helped the Canadian industry to develop competitive products and services. Needless to say, composite materials feature among the concerns and lines of research of the organization. ith NRC Aerospace – the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) Institute for Aerospace Research and its associated research institutes – Canada has a structure that over the years has grown to assume a position of strategic importance. NRC Aerospace conducts research and development in the fields related to the design, manufacture, performance, operation, and safety of air and space vehicles. W A key sector The Canadian aerospace and defence industry is worth over 23 billion dollars, 84% of which comes from exports. It makes a significant contribution to the nation’s GDP with around 700 aerospace , companies that employ over 82,000 people, a large number of whom are engineers and scientists. The aerospace and defence industry has a presence in each of Canada’s provinces. As is the case in many sectors, research & technology development (RTD) is one of the main drivers behind the aerospace, defence and space industries, which are in need of products and of design and manufacturing methods built upon top quality technology. For these industries to continue to prosper, there has to be large investment in the creation of products and processes that are involved at every stage of the supply chain, and in the global process of acquisition, development and demonstration of the relevant technology. of improving liquid composite moulding technologies by the use of flexible equipment and tools, and improving the production of thermosetting composites via automation and computerized monitoring of cross-linking. The use of automated fibre placement in the manufacturing of aerospace components and of new joining and assembly technologies for composite materials, such as resistance welding for thermoplastic composites, are also being studied. Martin Tanguay manufacturing thermoplasticcarbon fibre tube on the ADC machine. Mehdi Hojjati and Marc-André Octeau inspecting RTM part. Located in Ottawa, Montreal and other locations across Canada, NRC Aerospace is a leader in aerospace innovation through focused R&D programmes, partnerships and collaborations with industry, government, and university partners. It has over 400 staff in the five laboratories that make up the NRC Institute for Aerospace Research, as well as researchers in other associated institutes, such as the NRC Industrial Materials Institute and the NRC Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences. These researchers work for customers and with partners from across Canada and around the world to advance aerospace research. Liquid composite moulding A choice partner for composites RTD In this context, NRC Aerospace is well placed for devising innovative technical solutions that meet the complex technical needs of today’s aerospace market. To achieve this, it has set several strategic objectives, at least one of which concerns composites specifically: namely, acquiring the requisite competencies in the highly important technological field of affordably priced composite materials and structures. In the field of composites, NRC Aerospace is studying, in particular, the possibility Studies are currently underway to develop liquid composite moulding technologies in order to improve their cost-effectiveness ratio by way of process simulation and modular tooling solutions. This technology is generating more and more interest from companies in the aerospace sector that are on the look-out for more economical solutions than autoclave processing, the most common method today for producing high-quality parts. It is a fact that resin transfer moulding can be a reliable method for the production of large …/… No46 January-February 2009 / jec composites magazine 11
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #46 - January/February 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #46 - January/February 2009
