High-Performance Composites - March 2006

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Thermoplastic Composites Gain Leading Edge On The A380

Breakthrough manufacturing process produces lightweight, affordable glass-reinforced PPS J-nose on the worlds largest commercial aircraft wing.

In the aerospace industry, where lightweight composites are prized primarily for their stiffness and strength, thermoplastics traditionally have taken a back seat to thermosets — with one very large exception. When Airbus Industrie's (Toulouse France) A340-600 commercial airliner entered service in 2002, fiberglass-reinforced thermoplastics formed the most inboard leading edge, often referred to as the J-nose due to its distinctive profile. Codeveloped by Airbus UK (Bristol, U.K.) and molder Stork Fokker AESP (Hoogeveen, The Netherlands), the monolithic structures — two per wing — replaced heavier five-part aluminum D-noses flanked by flat composite sandwich panels cored with Nomex honeycomb (DuPont Advanced Fiber Systems, Richmond, Va.) The result met all of Airbus' design requirements, beating out both thermoset composite and aluminum alloy alternatives, and securing a greater than 20 percent weight reduction, at a cost not significantly higher than aluminum (see HPC March/April 2000, p. 27). Read More ...

Features

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2006 SAMPE Europe Conference/JEC Show Preview

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