The CAMINO project aims to establish a pilot facility to develop narrow, unidirectional, carbon fibre prepreg materials to meet future high-rate production and cost needs, for primary structures components in civil, defence and mobility markets CAMINO is a composite technology development programme, focused on developing manufacturing and adjacent technologies that will allow the UK aerospace industry to meet the future high-rate production needs of the growing civil, defence aircraft & future mobility markets. It will develop innovative technologies for the aerospace sector to reduce the time to market of new products, cost of manufacturing and carbon footprint whilst enabling the increasing rate. This will be achieved through the development of a step-change in manufacturing technologies, modelling and digitalisation of production processes and an order of magnitude reduction in waste generated in prepreg manufacture.

The UK composites industry is valued at £2.3 billion, while the global thermoplastic composites market is projected to reach $47.5 billion by 2030\. As the surge for global demand of light weight composites and high-performance materials continues to grow, Hexcel's Duxford site is looking for new ways to become more competitive in that market. Duxford produces a large product range for composites manufacture in the aerospace industry which is constantly looking to develop lighter and smarter materials creating a very competitive field. This competitiveness comes from a mix of increasing process efficiency and from finding more advanced ways to trial new products that could fill gaps in the market which may have a new range of material properties to those which we are used to dealing with. For us, innovation needs to be at the forefront of all of our work, pushing us to improve and develop within the market. Improving our adhesive coating technology would put us in a position to increase not only our competitive edge in the market but also allowing us to explore new technologies supported by our internal research and technology teams and by collaboration with academic institutions. The Challenge At the moment we produce a range of adhesive films for customer use and for internal composite panel manufacture. We are reaching out into areas of materials science we are less familiar with and to get these materials into production we need to review the process routes which we have become comfortable with. This means looking towards new technologies to streamline the processes currently running to reduce scrap material, and to improve our predictions for processing conditions when developing new or higher energy material. For this Hexcel are partnering with ASTUTE, a company dedicated to excelling industry within the U.K who have expertise in machine leaning and modelling. The company will provide their academic and process experience to help us navigate this streamlining of current processes and aiding us learn the tools necessary for smoother new product introduction. The future hope would be to use this new knowledge driven approach to branch out to other areas of Hexcel's manufacturing lines both in Duxford and worldwide. It will provide a smarter and more environmentally friendly method of manufacture which is always a driving force in the aerospace industry.

ASCEND is an industry led, cross-sector consortium brought together by GKN Aerospace, focussed on developing & accelerating UK composites capability to meet the requirement of single aisle, business jets & future mobility markets. ASCEND will develop the UK value chain in readiness for a step-change in use of lightweight structures, at high-rates. ASCEND brings new entrants, established small, high-growth & Tier-1 partners together to collaborate on delivering flexible automated capability. Connecting best in-class of talent, experience, & market access in one programme. ASCEND delivers UK capability for advanced, lightweight structures to meet demand in electric & hybrid propulsion aerospace structures.

The development of a robust, highly-loaded composite-metallic joint for Aerospace Engines. Utilising new, high-temperature composite material developments and underpinned by cure modelling, the technology delivers optimised components.

Development of CFRP materials using a resin infusion approach, aimed at large scale composite primary structures such as wing covers, spars and stringers ultimately for the production of a full composite wing. Optimisation of materials and processes to deliver a cost competitive composite solution for such structures

To audit and map existing supply chain processes. To develop an integration plan and implement/champion the process changes (embed into the buisness process). To roll out a 'Best practise Dashboard' and establish a Collaborative Centre of Excellence.

The PROTEST project is a collaboration between EADS Innovation Works, Airbus, Hexcel, Cardiff University and the National Composites Centre. The increase in the use of composite materials within the aerospace industry has raised concerns over the impact of lightning strikes on these structures. The aerospace industry has been developing its understanding of damage mechanisms to composite structures from lightning strike tests over recent years that has led to a number of isolated computational models. Despite these developments, the most recent aircraft programmes have suffered from non-compliance to safety requirements and late modifications to design have been needed to ensure certification. This project will address two key aspects; the derivation and collation of specific data on the impact of lightning strike on key elements of the structure of an aircraft, and the integration of this information and existing models into predictive tools available for the design process. The project will form a core component of the research within the Aerospace Technology Institute in the development of the next generation of aerostructures.

No abstract available.