JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - Supplement lnnovation report - 52

JEC WORLD 2018
APPLICATIONS

Aeronautics

Polyketone composite parts for
> Booth:
high-volume commercial aerospace Hall 5 - S29
TxV Aero Composites, located in Bristol,
Rhode Island, USA, is positioned to
address the unmet needs of the aerospace industry by combining worldclass expertise in materials, engineering, development, and manufacturing.
TxV offers a range of polyketone composites, from custom laminates to preformed
composite inserts for hybrid moulding processes, as well as finished composite parts
and complete overmoulded systems. TxV
delivers aerospace-quality parts at the rate,
pace and scale required by the commercial
aerospace industry.
www.txvaero.com

Mass transportation

Composite body for electric city buses
> Booth:
The composite body for electric city buses developed by Avic Hall 6 - M13
Composite is a monocoque body without a skeleton divided into four parts:
the top, the floor, the left-side wall and the right-side wall. The four parts are
made of foam core sandwich composite. The sandwich panel is a carbon/
glass fibre hybrid reinforced epoxy composite and the sandwich interlayer is
made of polyvinyl chloride foam. According to the strength and rigidity requirements, the mass percentage of carbon fibre and the PVC foam density
can vary in different parts of the bus. Compared to the bodies with a skeleton or half-skeleton, the final design without a skeleton offers processing, cost and
weight advantages without reducing strength or stiffness. To meet the project's cost,
processing period and feasibility requirements, the VARI (Vacuum-Assisted Resin
infusion) process was chosen to produce the body. The connection between the top
and the handrail, the floor and the chair is achieved by a steel panel embedded in the
composite material. The four parts (the side walls to the top and side walls to the
floor) are connected by bolts on the turnups, which was shown to be efficient and
safe by experimental results. The four parts are 442kg, 899kg, 226kg and 220kg, respectively, making the body weigh only 1787kg and thus offering a strong advantage
over similar products currently available on the market.
www.acc.avic.com
Electric car motor stabilizer
> Booth:
The electric car motor stabilizer developed by Epotech Hall 6 - J71
Composite is more than 50% lighter than metal equivalents with remarkable
good maintenance of bending and torsional stiffness under different loading
conditions. With the EPO-624TM matrix system, the sliding behaviour between plies can be
efficiently limited to maximise bending stiffness and
toughened mechanism largely restrains the growth
of micro-cracks, thus prolonging the lifespan of lightweight composite parts in service. Hot press, VBO
and autoclave moulding processes are all available with about 50%, 30% and 50%
shorter moulding times, respectively.
www.epotechcorp.com

Automotive

Sports & leisure

Innovative suspension
> Booth:
solution for ultimate comfort
Hall 6 - H84
GOODSIDE® is the first suspension solution made out of
glass fibre-reinforced plastic slats that support the body all
over, so you can sit and sleep completely evenly without sinking in.
The combination of pultrusion and
extrusion allows completely new
applications. Whatever your body shape,
it provides your back with optimum support in any position. The materials used
guarantee long-lasting elasticity and are
much more durable than wooden slats and springs. Even when
using a simple mattress, GOODSIDE® guarantees the best support for the body and provides ultimate comfort. www.oke.de

Aeronautics

New architecture for a net-shape SQRTM aircraft door
> Booth:
As part of this project, an innovative architecture for an aircraft landing gear door was demonstrated and qualified up to flight Hall 5 - Q68
test level. This architecture exploits the potential of the SQRTM out-of-autoclave process. The material used is
Hexply M21 cured under pressure in a matched tool. Around 1kg of M21 resin was injected around the part to
generate 7 bar of pressure as in an autoclave. The SQRTM process and material performance perfectly matched
Airbus requirements for autoclave-cured materials. With this project, SQRTM was pushed up to the flight test
level within the two largest European groups: Airbus and Safran. The architecture is innovative because the
matched tool makes it possible to mould a complex shape with perfect control of material performance and a high integration level. The door features H, J and C section beams. An original feature is the H beam splitting in two C beams
with a soft curved transition. This shows that the design of "bio-mimetic" curved stiffeners can be developed and qualified for aircraft structures. Another
innovation is the production of a complex structure at lower cost than a sandwich structure. This is possible because the structure is highly integrated. A
major benefit of this innovation is that it can be produced at competitive cost within European aerospace companies.
www.coexpair.com

jec composites magazine / N° 119 supplement - Innovation Report

http://www.oke.de http://www.acc.avic.com http://www.epotechcorp.com http://www.txvaero.com http://www.coexpair.com http://www.jeccomposites.com/mediakit

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - Supplement lnnovation report