Carbon Fibre Composite Materials in the Aerospace Industry
Peter Wu from Spirit Aerosystems, the largest tier 1 supplier in the aerospace industry, and supplier to the likes of Boeing, Airbus, Gulfstream and Sikorsky explains the services that they provide to these OEM manufacturers. These include design, manufacture, research and development and certification. They produce structural parts such as fuselages and wings.
Over the last 20 years the use of composite materials, including carbon fibre reinforced composites has increased. These materials are becoming more popular due to their light weight, high strength and corrosion resistance. One of the major changes that has taken place has been the transition from hand lay up of composite structures to automated fibre placement, which happens in the production of fuselages.
Automation also follows through into other aspects of manufacturing where consistency is achieved.
Spirit Aerosystems is also proud of their green chemistry initiatives, where hazardous chemicals and solvents used to treat metals etc are recycled and re-used.
This interview was recorded at the Carbon Fibre - Future Directions conference, held in Geelong Australia and organised by VCAMM and Deakin University.
Run time - 10:45min
Carbon Fibre in the Aerospace Industry