JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #48 - May 2009 - 60

USERS’ PLATFORM Successful partners The A400M cargo door: faster, lighter and better value Premium Aerotec, a recently-founded German aerostructures supplier, won the 2009 JEC Innovation Award in the Aeronautics category. Its new infusion process, the VAP® technology, can be used to produce large carbon-fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) components saving time, weight and money. ngineers at the former EADS site in Augsburg – headquarters of the new company Premium Aerotec since January – have developed a process that allows large CFRP components to be manufactured not only at less cost and with lower weight, but also around 20% faster than before. E stringers to the skin, the new process allows them to be joined in a single step, with the stringers and skin being produced in a one-shot integrated process (see Figure 1). The innovation lies in the application of this type of infusion process to a very large part. It was previously considered impossible to use vacuum-assisted infusion with a oneshot manufacturing process integrating skin and stringer for large parts. Fig. 2: The A400M upper cargo door. © Premium Aerotec Main specifications Key benefits of the VAP process • Out-of-autoclave process • Cost-effectiveness • Shorter production time • Greater production flexibility Fig. 1: Preparing the infusion process. Development and benefits This project was triggered by the search for a design that would minimize the weight and cost of the A400M cargo door. It turned out that only an integral construction method combined with composites could meet the target. After several preliminary studies, the complete construction method was developed during the course of the project, involving a series of intensive manufacturing trials. The project has since been successfully completed and the cargo door has reached serial production. Whereas conventional manufacturing methods for aircraft structures require a separate assembly step to join the The properties and functionality of the laminate remain the same. This not only saves precious time, but also thousands of fasteners between the skin and the stringers – and thus weight. In comparison with conventional production methods, the A400M upper cargo door uses about 3,000 less fasteners. The direct benefit to the A400M programme is a higher aircraft payload. The upper cargo door, which is about 7x4 meters in size, is the world’s largest CFRP aircraft structure produced by oneshot resin infusion (skin and stringer) for a pressurized section of the fuselage (see Figures 2 and 3). This technological innovation was manufactured using an in-house vacuumassisted process (VAP®), which uses a vacuum to facilitate the infusion of resin into the carbon veil. An advantage of this new technology is that expensive autoclaves are no longer necessary, as a temperature-controlled oven is sufficient for hardening the resin. Apart from the economic advantages, the patented technique also allows shorter component production times than conventional processes and considerable weight reductions. Fig. 3: The A400M upper cargo door (white) on the assembly line. 60 jec composites magazine / No48 May 2009 © Airbus © Premium Aerotec

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #48 - May 2009

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