Towards a thermoplastic upper shell demonstrator: Production technologies for future fuselages

Abstract

The Center for Lightweight Production Technology (ZLP) in Augsburg together with Premium Aerotec, Aernnova and Airbus will deliver the 8 m long upper half shell for the full-scale multifunctional fuselage demonstrator (MFFD) made of carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastics. This work discusses the development of production technologies for this new single aisle aircraft approach undertaken within the greater European Clean Sky 2 large passenger aircraft (LPA) project. For the skin layup automated fiber placement (AFP) with a novel flashlamp heating system is investigated, benchmarked against laser-assisted AFP, and backed by process simulation for optimization. The in-situ consolidation of the newly developed low melt Polyaryletherketone (LM-PAEK) material enables a lean, single-stage process. However, it requires detailed investigation to generate material-specific processing parameters. For stringer integration robot-based continuous ultrasonic welding is being matured to further improve robustness, and tailor the weld parameters to LM-PAEK. Frame, cleat and frame coupling integration will be carried out by means of electrical resistance welding (RW). In recent years, RW has been matured to exhibit homogeneous welds of high joint strength on coupon and component level. Upscaling effects and challenges of full scale fuselage shell assembly, however, still require further investigations to ensure process reliability. Especially geometric tolerances with mismatch between mating part surfaces can only be compensated to a limited extent within the joining processes. Special attention is hence given to proper design to manufacture, i.e. align design principles with manufacturing engineering requirements. We will showcase the latest developments on thermoplastic manufacturing and joining techniques, which are key to this fuselage shell assembly concept.