JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #111 - March 2017 - Special JEC World - o - 14

NEWS meeting

Airbus is open for innovation
Yes, small businesses and start-ups are welcome at Airbus.
During a visit to the Airbus site in Nantes, France, we spoke
to Cyrille Collart, Head of Innovation & Development - Industrial
Technologies Composites at Airbus, to get a better understanding of Airbus's motives in partnering with the 2017 JEC
World Startup Booster programme.

he aircraft manufacturer
is always looking for new
solutions that lead to
gains in productivity, process
robustness, agility, ergonomics
and economic efficiency. An
accumulation of gains that
taken individually might seem
marginal can have a big impact
on aircraft production. The
target here is concrete, rapidly
applicable results, rather than a
significant
technical
step
change.
The Nantes site (figure 2) is one
of Airbus's three French

interview

CYRILLE COLLART,
Head of Innovation &
Development - Manufacturing
Technologies Composites at Airbus

production sites (along with
Saint Nazaire and Toulouse).
With its 2,700 employees, the
site's hallmark is its expertise in
a broad range of metal and
composite techniques for
elementary parts. It helped
pioneer the development of
composites Starting in the late
1980s with the wing tip panels
for the ATR 72, followed in the
1990s by the A340 500-600
keel beam, and now produces
centre-wing sections (A320,
A330, A350 XWB, A380 and
A400M), radomes (A320,
A330, A350 XWB, A380 and
A400M), air inlets (A320 neo,
A330 neo, A350 XWB and
A380), keel beams (A350
XWB) and ailerons (A380). In
addition, the assembly of the
JEC Composites Magazine: What
are Airbus's expectations in
terms of innovation?

Cyrille Collart: While
continuing to work on the
continuous improvement of our
industrial system, we are
currently in a ramp-up phase for
the A320 and A350 XWB, so we
are looking for additional
opportunities to enhance and

jec composites magazine / No111 March 2017

centre wing boxes of all the
aircraft of the Airbus family is
undertaken here. In Nantes,
composites are used to make
radomes; structural components for the centre-wing
sections of the A350 XWB
(>50% composite for this
specific part), the A380 (40%
composite) and the A400M
(50% composite); keel beams
for the A350 XWB; acoustic
panels for the air intakes,
including those for the A320
neo engine; and ailerons for the
A380 (80% composite, six
ailerons per aircraft). In 2015,
the Nantes site drape-formed
more than 290,000 square
metres of carbon prepreg (the
equivalent of 40 soccer fields).
Here, we will focus on the A350
optimise
our
industrial
technologies. The role of my
department (Editor's note:
Innovation & Development Industrial
Technologies
Composites) is to identify,
mature and implement solutions
to reduce the recurring cost,
reduce the cycle time, improve
the ergonomic conditions, and
improve quality in the most

XWB keel beam, the A320 neo
air inlets, and the Airbus
Technocentre in order to get a
better idea of the Airbus
innovation
strategy
for
production. An interview
follows the descriptions below.
The A350 XWB keel beam
The A350 XWB keel beam is
made of 70% composite (figure
3). The main keel-beam
components are made using
automated drape-forming. In
all, over 800 kg of carbon
prepreg is drape-formed in
Nantes to make this part. The
components are cured and
trimmed, and then assembled
with other structural elements
in aluminium and titanium.
This sub-assembly is 16.5 m
efficient manner. We respond to
the identified need within our
plants pragmatically and rapidly.
Once a technology has been
validated at one site, we replicate it
at all other sites that can benefit
from it.
JCM: Did you apply that method to
the A350 XWB keel beam?

C. C.: Yes, this part - the actual

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