JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #96 - April 2015 - 45

laser projection

Projection technology for CFRP parts,
conveniently controlled via tablet PC

By
Marie Hooper
Sales Manager Laser Projection Systems
LAP

T

Most visitors are amazed when they
take a peek behind the scenes in Stade.
Semi-monocoques, which are made from
special steel and are up to 35 metres in
length and 7 metres in width, can be
seen at several workstations. The semimonocoques, known as tools, serve as
a negative mould for the carbon fibre
components. CFRP mats in all kinds of
shapes are pre-soaked in a special resin
and placed into the monocoques layer by
layer by skilled workers. Once all of the
fibre mats have been placed in, a vacuum
film is laid over the moulds and the mats
are compressed using negative pressure.
In the final step, the layers are subjected
to pressure and heat in an autoclave in
order to cure into a solid structure. The
layering process cannot be described as
straightforward. It requires exceptional
precision to ensure that the finished
components can withstand the enormous
forces that they will be subjected to in the
air for the years to come.

struck gold with the Lüneburg-based
laser specialists LAP, who started developing point and line lasers as early as 1984
and now provide complex, high-precision
system solutions for industrial companies
all over the world.
LAP first introduced Airbus to the
Composite Pro laser projection system,
which they could use to position CFRP
layers, in 2003 (figure 2). At that time, the
Airbus site in Stade was just starting to
produce components for the Eurofighter.
Airbus was delighted with the product,
and has been purchasing its laser projection systems from LAP ever since.
There are over one hundred Composite
Pro systems in use in Stade alone, and
many hundreds more in Airbus sites
around the world.

Over 100 laser projectors
at the Stade site

Fig. 1: CFRP components account for 22% of the
structural weight of the Airbus A380

Airbus started looking for a reliable positioning system several years ago to make
it easier for aircraft companies to position
the numerous CFRP mats and to increase
product quality. The aircraft company

Fig. 2: Manually laying up the CFRP mats requires
clean working and precise positioning. Laser lines
display the outline of the next layer

No96 April 2015 / jec

Feature Aeronautics

he idyllic Hanseatic city of Stade in
Lower Saxony, 45 kilometres west
of Hamburg, is home to an Airbus
production plant with 1,500 employees.
At this plant, the world's second-largest
aircraft company produces fuselage
sections for the Eurofighter, wings and
fuselage segments for the twin-engine
wide-body A350 aircraft, and the vertical
stabilizer for the A380. Airbus relies on
carbon fibre-reinforced plastics (CFRP),
which make products much lighter while
also providing increased stability in comparison to steel (figure 1). Switching to
these lightweight construction materials is
particularly beneficial for airlines, because
the reduced aircraft weight enables them
to save on fuel costs.

Today, aircraft companies such as Airbus use carbon fibre
composites to produce vertical stabilizers, wings, or even whole
fuselage sections, because they are lighter and stronger than
steel. The components are made up of several layers which
must be perfectly positioned and in the right order to ensure
that they can withstand the enormous loads experienced in
flight. Laser projection systems are used to ensure the layers
are perfectly positioned.

composites magazine 45
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #96 - April 2015

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