Manufacturing tests of the lower skin of a wing in dry fiber by laying in FP and subsequent forming and infusion

Abstract

In recent years many of the developments in the field of composite materials have focused on processes of dry carbon fiber, and efforts have been directed to achieve with these materials the same levels of industrialization as with pre-impregnated materials, since it is a technology of low cost and with a high productivity. The objective of this project has been to develop dry carbon fiber manufacturing methods to obtain an automated, robust and efficient process for reaching manufacture the lower skin of a wing with stringers and integrated spars by automatic laying in Fiber Placement, posterior Hot forming and finally a process of resin infusion by "Vacuum Assisted Process". To achieve this objective, the Fiber Placement machine has been set up to optimize the laying parameters for the processing of the material to be used (½” Hexcel Hi-Tape fiber). On the other hand, several tests of hot forming of this laminates have been carried out by means of the previous process, modifying process variables, tooling details and forming bag configuration, in order to obtain the preforms of stringers and spars. Finally, the integration of spars, stringers and skin was performed by a resin infusion process using the VAP technique "Vacuum Assisted Process".