A composites manufacturing process developed for the automotive industry is to be adapted for aerospace use under a two-year, $7.2 million, US Air Force contract awarded to the National Center for Composite Systems Technology (NCCST).
Based in Kettering, Ohio, the NCCST will lead the pilot project to adapt the programmable powdered-preform process (P-4) to make aerospace composite parts. The process was developed by Owens Corning and will be used by a consortium of the "Big Three" US carmakers to demonstrate the feasibility of mass-producing glass-fibre-reinforced- plastic truckbeds.
The NCCST, with Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and the University of Dayton Research Institute, will adapt the process to make carbonfibre parts.
The team will select and rank a dozen aerospace components and select one for fabrication using the process. Weight savings of up to 50% are anticipated when composites replace metal parts.
Source: Flight International