European Union FRAMES Project: Development of aerospace thermoplastic composites with complex geometries

The Clean Sky 2 (“Clean Sky” Phase 2) project led by ESTIA-Compositadour (French Institute of Advanced Industrial Engineering) will develop technologies to optimize the rear fuselage and tail.
? Thermoplastic composite advanced back-end (ARE) demonstrator suitable for Clean Sky 2.
Image source: ESTIA-Compositadour? FRAMES: A new research project focusing on thermoplastic manufacturing solutions for complex geometries.
The European consortium of companies initiated by ESTIA-Compositadour (Bayonne, France) is jointly developing advanced knowledge and manufacturing solutions for full-scale thermoplastic aircraft rear-end demonstrators.
? The fuselage of a new generation of large passenger aircraft will certainly rely on the advantages of thermoplastic composite materials.
Higher resilience, recyclable potential and faster production cycles will enable us to meet the challenges of the aviation industry in the future.
In fact, such materials are increasingly used in the aerospace industry because they help reduce aircraft weight and thereby reduce fuel consumption.
There are still some problems that need to be overcome before this goal can be achieved.
For aircraft with complex forms of continuous fiber reinforcement, the manufacturing of the rear end still poses huge challenges: such as high processing temperatures, high raw material costs, complex temperature control tools and constantly changing cross-sections.
In order to support the "Clean Sky 2" plan, which focuses on developing concepts and realizing the best rear fuselage and tail technology, several organizations of ESTIA-Compositadour jointly initiated a European enterprise alliance and developed it into 2.
Five-year application research project FRAMES: for the manufacture of fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites with reinforced, complex, double-bend structures.
? The main goal of FRAMES is to verify and evaluate the manufacturing method of the overall thermoplastic back-end with key design features.
The key technology developed by FRAMES will be used in the medium advanced back-end (ARE) demonstrator produced by Deutsches Zentrumfür Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), which is a large passenger aircraft (large passenger aircraft, LPA) Clean Sky 2 technology Part of the platform.
? By integrating their strength and knowledge, the alliance will bring reliable and competitive industrial solutions for intelligent heating systems for automatic stacking, efficient production processes for reinforcing ribs and advanced heating molds.
Three work lines will support these key technologies: · Heraeus Noblelight will lead the development of an automatic fiber placement (AFP) and xenon heating device (such as humm3) that combines a photothermal simulation model to achieve rapid skin spreading put.
· Xelis will develop a mature manufacturing process that has mature and high productivity and can manufacture complex thermoplastic reinforced materials.
· Cero will be responsible for providing an automatic heating tool solution, so that the skin and stiffener can be consolidated in one go.
? ESTIA-Compositadour will lead the FRAMES project, conduct fiber placement tests, and provide DLR support during the manufacturing and delivery of the ARE demonstrator.
? The FRAMES project started in July 2020, and the progress will be released regularly.
Cero will be responsible for providing an automatic heating tool solution, which will be able to strengthen the skin and stiffeners in one go.
? ESTIA-Compositadour will lead the FRAMES project, conduct fiber placement tests, and provide DLR support during the manufacturing and delivery of the ARE demonstrator.
? The FRAMES project started in July 2020, and the progress will be released regularly.
Cero will be responsible for providing an automatic heating tool solution, which will be able to strengthen the skin and stiffeners in one go.
? ESTIA-Compositadour will lead the FRAMES project, conduct fiber placement tests, and provide DLR support during the manufacturing and delivery of the ARE demonstrator.
? The FRAMES project started in July 2020, and the progress will be released regularly.