A Look At Thermoplastic Composites In The Aerospace Industry

Weight reduction is attracting the attention of the Aerospace and Automotive industries. This is because reducing the weight of a vehicle or an aircraft will lead to a direct improvement in fuel economy, which will reduce the carbon footprint of these technologies (Davey et al., 2013). Weight reduction could be achieved by replacing current materials with composite materials.

A composite material consists of two or more distinct materials (e.g. fibres and polymer matrix) that form to make a new material with superior mechanical properties than those two materials individually (Barbero, 2011). In a Polymer Matrix Composite (PMC), the fibres provide stiffness and strength. The polymer matrix is responsible for binding the fibres together and transferring load between them. (Barbero, 2011). The matrix also transfers loads between the PMC and the external loads and supports. Examples of fibres include glass fibres, silica fibres, carbon fibres, organic fibres and ceramic fibres (Barbero, 2011). The polymer matrix could be a thermoplastic e.g. Polyamide66 (PA66) and Polyetheretherketone (PEEK), or a thermosetting resin (Deng et al., 2015 Lingesh, Rudresh Ravikumar, 2014).

In the Aerospace industry, composite materials can be used to replace materials of components such as rotors, wings, nacelles and interiors (Composites Leadership Forum, 2016). Within the Aerospace industry, weight reductions (due to composites) are typically quoted as 20% - 50%. Composite materials also offer other benefits such as better strength-to-weight ratio than metals (by as much as 20%), high impact resistance, high fatigue resistance and high corrosion resistance (Mrazova, 2013). In 2016, the global composites market was estimated to be 12 million tons, while Europe s market represented approximately 3 million tons. Glass fibre reinforced thermoplastics (with short fibres) dominated that market at 48%, followed by glass fibre reinforced thermosets at 33%, glass fibre thermosets with non-crimp fabrics at 12%, glass fibre reinforced thermoplastics (with long fibres) at 6% and carbon fibre composites at 1% (Effing, 2018). Finished composite parts in industry have a market value of approximately 30.85 billion Euros, with the transport sector representing more than a third of that value (Effing, 2018).