JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #96 - April 2015 - 5

JCM: Is the current technological
race in the aeronautics industry
spurred on solely by a rivalry
between aircraft manufacturers?
What kind of influence, if any, do
the airline companies have when
it comes to aircraft design?

C.F. : Airbus product policy

is driven by market needs. The
choice of materials is driven by
the operability and performance
of the aircraft, which is very important for the airlines. Hence,
the less is the weight, the best
is the aircraft range (distance
parcourue). In addition, the less
costly the maintenance is, the
better it is for the airline.
The composite technology from
this point of view offers reduced
maintenance: not sensitive to
fatigue. This helps to achieve
reduced maintenance costs (less
inspection visits, the first inspection threshold is established at
12 years).
For the A350 the traditional
'intermediate' check at year six is
eliminated, and the first 'heavy'
check tasks (those former
'D-check' tasks requiring heavy
access requirements) do not
need to be performed until the
12th year. Overall, combining
the benefits of the A350's com-

Airbus tests new "thermoplastic
automatic fibre placement" composite
manufacture technique

posites together with innovative technology and systems
simplification & integration will
reduce the A350-900's overall
Airframe Direct Maintenance
Costs.
We also achieved reduction of
noise thanks to composite material and "sandwich technology"
developed for nacelle/ engine /
cowling.
We contribute by this way to
reduce noise and fuel consumption; hence, it makes the aircraft
more environmental friendly.
Concerning the production
aspect, Airbus is also looking for
materials which are reliable to
produce, stable and adaptable
to all aircraft components. For
instance, a wing does not have
the same design and production
constraints as the fuselage.
JCM: What type of collaboration
policy do you hold with your
composite materials suppliers?
Are you leaning towards a growing integration policy or rather
increased outsourcing?

C.F. : We have a strong col-

laboration with composite material suppliers, up to challenge
them to get the best price and
performance.
We started upstream from R&D,
as we are looking for multifunctional composite materials, combining structural and
functional properties, such as
electrical conductivity, noise, up
to integrated design.
We also work with our suppliers
in order to improve costefficiency manufacturing, and
meeting the very high delivery
rates. Various competences and
partnerships which we monitor
include material suppliers, machines tools manufacturers and
process manufacturers (eg. drilling, cutting and part control).
We also steer their R&T, and

The Airbus A350-900 prototype in special carbon-fibre livery

even their plant creation (such
as Hexcel's opening of a new
fibre production line in Europe:
After the creation of a plant in Illescas in Spain, Hexcel opened a
plant in Roussillon in France).
JCM: More specifically during the
A350 project, what kind of difficulties were subsequent to the
use of composite materials?

C.F. : With the composite, we

have been challenged by the airlines on several aspects such as:
- Our design maturity versus
corrosion, which has led to an
increased use in Titanium, for
the most sensitive areas (to
corrosion).
- Need for high cosmetic repairs,
composite being able to be
bonded, it was of no sense for
airlines to have bolted patches as
done on conventional metallic
aircraft.
- Easy maintainability developing easy processes for Non-destructive testing (NDT control).
- We have developed, thanks
to these challenges, innovative
concepts such as hybrid seat
rails and out of autoclave repair
material.
JCM: What kind of answers
are you expecting in order to
facilitate the integration and use
of these materials?

No96 April 2015 /

C.F. : Innovation in auto

diagnosis would be a great innovation in facilitating healthpart control. Today, systematic
100% control is performed on
all structural composite parts.
- ie, a control with sensors has
to be made systematically on all
composite parts, which is costly
and time consuming. Therefore,
auto diagnosis from the parts
themselves would be a great
improvement.
Current production is a stepby-step process from fiber
impregnation to part manufacturing and control. Easy
manufacturing with less heavy
tooling (conception time and
cost) would help for stronger
optimization of the product,
especially for current production improvement.
We are looking for more multifunctional composite materials, combining structural and
functional properties, such as
electrical conductivity, noise, up
to integrated design, merging
structural performance and
system integration: full wireless,
the composite structure being
the structure: The carbon fibre
would conduct electricity, with
the fibre being the 'wire'. n
More information:
www.airbus.com

jec composites magazine 5

http://www.airbus.com

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #96 - April 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #96 - April 2015