Focus on CFC technology at the ILA Berlin Air Show 2012

At this years ILA Berlin Air Show, Premium AEROTEC will put the spotlight on the versatile ways that carbon fibre composites (CFC) can be used in aircraft construction. The latest generation of passenger aircraft demonstrates the significant progress that has been made in the industrial application of this innovative material.

As Europe’s largest supplier of aerostructures, Premium AEROTEC is playing a key role in the transition from primarily metal aircraft construction to CFC technology – and will now take this trade show as the ideal occasion to showcase its capabilities in CFC aerostructures and manufacturing technologies.

To this end, Premium AEROTEC will exhibit four large-scale CFC components at ILA that exemplify the versatile applications for this material within aircraft construction. With a 4 x 2.3 metre section from a fuselage shell of the A350 XWB, Airbus’ latest-generation long-haul aircraft, the company is highlighting its capabilities in the development and manufacturing of complex aerostructures using the materials of the future. Thanks to this knowledge and its many years of experience with CFC for aircraft construction, Premium AEROTEC is one of the largest suppliers of structures for the A350 XWB.

The presentation of a 2 x 3.5 metre outer skin section for a cargo door spotlights Premium AEROTEC’s ability to develop and manufacture in CFC even components that are subjected to large mechanical loads, such as the cargo door of the new A400M military transporter. The technology demonstrators of a CFC skin section reinforced using stringers (1 x 3.5 metres) and of a sinusoidal CFC wing spar (2,5 x 0,6 x 0,4 metres) – which will also be on display at ILA – illustrate the company’s wide-ranging capabilities with respect to manufacturing technologies: whereas fuselage shells are made using the prepreg process, in which CFC laminates pre-impregnated with epoxy resin are precisely built up layer by layer, the cargo door skin and the technology demonstrators on display were made using the infusion-based Vacuum Assisted Process (VAP®). Here, the multiaxial carbon composite laminates are bonded to create components with complex geometries using an infiltration process.

The ILA Berlin Air Show 2012 will be held in Berlin from 11 to 16 September at the new ExpoCenter, right next to the capital’s future Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER). You can find Premium AEROTEC in Hall 2, Booth 2405.

Premium AEROTEC generated revenues of 1.3 billion euros in 2011. Its core business is the development and manufacturing of metal and carbon composite aerostructures and the associated equipment and production systems. The company has production plants in Augsburg, Bremen, Nordenham and Varel in Germany, and in Braşov (Romania).
Further information can be found at www.premium-aerotec.com.