High-Performance Composites is read by qualified composites industry professionals in the fields of continuous carbon fiber and other high-performance composites as well as the associated end-markets of aerospace, military, and automotive.
Issue link: https://hpc.epubxp.com/i/101340
Focus on fire protection placement seating has the potential to consume 4 million to 5 million lb (1,814 to 2,268 metric tonnes) of composites within the next ���ve years. ���Switching to composite seats can save in the neighborhood of 400 to 450 kg [882 to 992 lb] on a single-aisle aircraft.��� According to Red, there is a potential new-build and replacement market of more than 2 million coach seats per year. Potential areas for composites growth include brackets, trays and clips, cockpit ���ooring and seat rails. ���Combined,��� says Red, ���the existing suite of composite applications plus some of these new opportunities indicate that composite materials will make up perhaps as much as 40 percent of the total tonnage of interiors components, going forward.��� Phenolic resins ��� the current systems of choice for interiors ��� will continue strong in the future, but Red believes thermoplastics will play a big role in displacing metals in new aircraft cabins and might also begin to displace phenolics in some composites applications. Hot topic: Fire safety Not surprisingly, ���ammability was a burning issue. There was much discussion of certi���cation standards and test methods. An abundance of new materials and coatings were announced, designed speci���cally to meet the stringent ���ame, smoke and toxicity (FST) requirements for aircraft interiors applications. Source: Polymer nanoComposites Lab/Texas a&M; university a new nanocoating from Texas a&M; university���s Polymer nanoComposites Lab brings fire-retardant nanoclay filler to the part surface in an ultrathin coating. In tests, 1 percent anionic montmorillonite clay (MMT) and 0.1 percent cationic chitosan were deposited on open-cell polyurethane foam. after 10 seconds of exposure to direct flame, only the coatings��� outermost surface was charred. no flame was observed after 22 seconds of exposure, and white flexible foam was revealed under the protective char layer when the exposed foam was cut open. Robert Ochs, project engineer, FAA Technical Center (FAATC, Atlantic City, N.J.), updated attendees on the Federal Aviation Admin.���s (FAA) ongoing ���re safety research projects. Special mention was made of the agency���s proposal to update, reorganize and improve safety requirements for materials ���ammability, a move that would shift requirements to a more threat-based approach. Ochs stressed that in-���ight ���res in inaccessible areas are the most dangerous. Large-scale testing at the FAATC indicated that previous test methods permitted the use of materials that, in practice, perform very poorly. ���Mitigation of ���ame spread is the most effective means of preventing catastrophe,��� he said, noting that updated and more stringent test methods have been mandated for insulation and are in progress for ducts and wire insulation. Scott Campbell, director of ���ammability engineering, and Panade Sattayatam, engineering manager, both at C&D; Zodiac (Huntington Beach, Calif.), and Michael Jensen, manager, Composites and Adhesives at Boeing, teamed up to present an update on the Flammability Standardization Task Group (FSTG), a subgroup of the FAA���s International Aircraft Fire Test Working Group, which was formed to collaborate and propose industry-wide standard methods of compliance. FAA ���ammability requirements and compliance methods were being interpreted differently by regional FAA organizations, other regulatory agencies and industry suppliers and manufacturers, Jensen explained. A primary goal of the effort, then, is to address some of these inconsistencies and provide greater test standardization. Task group members have studied substrates, adhesives/syntactics, textures, laminate colors and paints in an effort to determine which ���ammability tests, and combinations thereof, will yield the most accurate and repeatable results. Although new types of cores, prepregs, adhesives, panel inserts and so forth will still require testing, Jensen says these methods can streamline the overall testing process. Innovation in carbon A real attention-grabber was Hexcel���s (Stamford, Conn.) HexMC, a quasiisotropic molding compound for structural aerospace applications. Designed to bridge the gap between low-performance, low-cost sheet molding compound (SMC) and high-performance, high-cost autoclaved prepreg, the material begins with an aerospace-grade unidirectional (UD) prepreg precursor (8552 resin system/38 percent RC and AS4 carbon ���bers/150 g/m2) that is slit, chopped and randomly redistributed to make approximately 2-mm/0.079-inch thick, 200 g/m2 mat, available in 450-mm/17.7-inch wide rolls. january 2013 | 21