AEROSPACE PROCESS (JOINT WINNERS PROCESS)

COMPLEX STRUCTURAL APPLICATIONS OF
MAI SANDWICH TECHNOLOGY

Airbus (Germany) and partners BMW Group, Technical University of Munich, Neue Materialien Bayreuth GmbH, Werkzeugbau Siegfried Hofmann GmbH, BASF SE,  Foldcore GmbH, Neenah Filtration, SGL Carbon GmbH 

This winning project is about producing a cost-effective, complex 2.5D thermoplastic composite sandwich structure with a very short cycle time of less than 5 minutes for aerospace materials and 2.5 minutes for automotive materials.

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In a first step, the two outer layers are thermoformed as well-known monolithic parts. These can easily be overmoulded to increase the integration of additional structural and/or functional requirements within the part.

In the next step, the core layer (foam, fold core or injected core) is positioned between the two outer skin layers in a press, after the contact surfaces of the inner and outer layers are preheated to allow bonding by thermal diffusion welding.

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In the final process step, injection moulding of a long fibre-reinforced thermoplastic material around the edges allows a net-shape design as well as local edge reinforcement.

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For the team, it was obvious that – driven by the strategic goal of the MAI Carbon cluster – a breakthrough for CFRP sandwich technology into large-scale production must be achieved. This resulted in a dramatic cycle time reduction from hours to less than 5 minutes (aeronautic materials) and 2.5 minutes (automotive materials) by using only one mould.