GKN Aerospace has designed and manufactured a mid-scale demonstrator tool to make a composite wing spar for Airbus.
The tool, which has been installed in the company’s Filton, UK facility, provides a fully functioning automated low-pressure resin transfer molding (RTM) system. According to GKN, the composite wing spar is considered one of the most challenging aerospace components to design and manufacture, and this will be one of the first times that RTM technology has been used on this scale.
GKN says that this allows the technology to move from traditional, pre-impregnated resin material to dry composite fibers that are injected with resin as part of the initial manufacturing process for the wing spar, a process which could result in significant weight savings.
This story uses material from GKN, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
