Automated, Quality Assured and High Volume Oriented Production of Fiber Metal Laminates (FML) for the Next Generation of Passenger Aircraft Fuselage Shells

Abstract

The use of fiber-metal laminates (FML) allows for substantial advantages over a fuselage skin made of monolithic aluminum materials. The combination of glass-fiberreinforced plastic and aluminum is characterized by low fatigue, high load tolerance and the resistance to residual stress. For this reason, FML, and GLARE in particular, have been identified as superior materials for aerospace applications. It has already been used extensively in the wide body aircraft of the Airbus Group A380, specifically on the upper fuselage shells. FML possess the potential to become the baseline material for next-generation single-aisle aircrafts. The development of a new production chain that will allow automated fuselage production for future short-haul aircrafts is the focus of the studies that make up the joint project AUTOGLARE. As part of the fifth call-up for the German Aeronautical Research Programme (LuFo), DLR is working with its project partners Airbus Operations, Premium Aerotech (PAG) and the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft (FhG). The development of a production chain for stiffened fuselage panels based on fiber-metal-laminates as a material is aimed at allowing a scaling-up to 60 aircrafts per month. This study contains the research work of the DLR and FhG regarding the automated and quality assured process for chain stiffened FML fuselages. In Addition to a detailed explanation of the systems that were set up, this paper covers the planned tests, the completed demonstration models and the findings derived from them.