JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #100 - Special JEC Asia - October 2015 - 44

awards
In-situ healing technology for
aircraft composite structure repair
Considerable progress has been made in the
area of composites self-healing. For instance, it
has been shown that the integrity loss caused
by matrix damage in composite materials (e.g.
due to impacts from dropped objects, bird
strike and other sources) can be completely
restored using techniques that dispense a
healing medium into the damaged region
and/or provide a thermally-activated crack
removal mechanism. This research was driven
by concerns throughout all application areas
in connection with the effects of damage. In
aircrafts, barely visible damage (BVD) is of
particular concern since it can affect strength
and safety without the user being fully aware.
The types of damage that are of greatest
concern are those that principally affect

Aeronautics: the future of MRO
the matrix phase and involve both matrix
cracking and delamination between plies.
The present project begins from the premise
that matrix damage can be detected, but will
employ non-destructive testing techniques
for characterising damage. This research
project focuses on "healing" technology for
environmentally-friendly repair of composite
aircraft structures. The main objective is to
develop and show proof of concept for a
rapid and effective in-situ healing technique
to repair barely visible damage (BVD) in
existing composite aero-structures. The
methodology will provide a solution, at a high
technology readiness level (TRL), to this
growing damage problem. The technology
will be readily applicable to damaged aircraft

Light-weight and high strength sandwich composite containers
These days, dry, insulated and refrigerated
containers made of composite panels are
being made available to customers. Major
benefits include lighter weight, higher
strength and no tinkering or painting and
maintenance work are needed. N. S. Rama
Rao Body Works (NSR) has been one of the
leading manufacturers in India for over 50
years; they are engaged in the fabrication of
tanks and were very keen on converting from
metal to sandwich composite containers.
As NSR was new to the Composite Industry, DIAB - Composite Consulting Group
(CCG) engineers provided on-site support
to develop the product from scratch, from

the mould to product manufacturing, as well
as hand Layup, vacuum bagging and core Infusion training. The container was manufactured separately: while usually they are built
on the chassis, in this case the container was
fitted into the chassis later on. The Divinycell
core was used to achieve superior thermal
and structural properties. As a result of this
approach, NSR has been able to reduce the
weight of the container while maintaining an
excellent corrosion resistance, strength and
achieving higher stiffness than the previous
model. At present, 15-20 composite containers are being manufactured each month, as
compared to the 20 to 30 metal containers

structures in the field. The procedures will
involve both in-situ monomer infiltration and
thermally-induced healing.

Transportation
Winner: Composites Consulting Group
(India)
Partners: DIAB Core Materials (India), N.S
Rama Rao Body Works (India)

that were manufactured per year until the
switch. As the fuel prices goes up, companies
are switching over from traditional metal to
light weight composites with all the additional
benefits.

Automotive

Aramid rear impact beam
This innovative rear impact beam consists
of Glass Mat Thermoplastics (GMT) and
aramid fibres, which is a world-first use of
thermoplastic aramid prepreg. This type of
prepreg has the advantage of being able to
absorb crash impact energy. Compared to
aluminium counterparts, advantages include
a significant weight reduction of up to 26%
(considering a car weight of 1.7 tons, an aluminium beam system weighs 4.7 kg while the
aramid beam system weighs only 3.5 kg). Additionally to enhanced collision performance,
it is also possible to improve fuel efficiency

Winner: Republic Polytechnic
(Singapore)

thanks to the weight reduction.
Optimized design with weight reduction was
officially validated based on the Research
Council for Automobile Repairs (RCAR)
test method. In a context where environmental issues are becoming more and more
present, the need for weight-saving technology in the automotive industry is immense.
This technology has widespread potential,
especially for structurally loaded parts in automobiles such as front/rear bumper beams,
seat structures, door impact bars, and so on.

44 jec composites magazine / No100 October 2015

Winner: Hanwha Advanced Materials
Corporation (Republic of Korea)
Partner: Hyundai Motor Group (Republic
of Korea)

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #100 - Special JEC Asia - October 2015