JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #111 - March 2017 - Special JEC World - o - 16

NEWS meeting

Fig.2: Airbus Nantes, France panoramic view

long and 4.1 m wide, and weighs
nearly 1.4 metric tons. It has
multiple performance requirements and many technological
challenges. Its assembly requires
almost 2,000 detail parts and
10,000 fasteners. Precision and
control are required at every
step.
The A320neo air inlets
The engine air inlets (figure 1)
are designed with three primary functions: acoustics, de-icing
and aerodynamics.
Each air inlet consists of four
subassemblies:
1 - the leading edge made of titanium-reinforced aluminium.

Fig.3: A350 XWB keel beam

16

2 - the acoustic panel, which is
located just behind the leading
edge in order to absorb some
of the noise output. It is made
almost entirely of carbon, with
the visible surface consisting of
a resistive thermoplastic layer
specifically designed by Airbus.
The layer is assembled using
an ultrasonic assembly process
and then reinforced with honeycomb and carbon plies (this
time using thermoset prepregs)
to make the panel.
3 - a rear frame made of carbon and titanium.
4 - an external panel made of
carbon.
In 2015, Airbus Nantes delivered 20 air inlets to its nacelle
manufacturing customer. By
2019, the number of air inlets to
be produced at Nantes will see
at least a fivefold increase covering for all of the Airbus programmes.
The Airbus Technocentre
On the 5th of January 2015,
Airbus Operations validated the
creation of a new Airbus
Technocentre on the premises
of the Technocampus Composites regional platform, just
outside the Airbus Nantes site.
The purpose of this technology
centre is to take benefit from

jec composites magazine / No111 March 2017

the very rich ecosystem,
gathering companies through
the EMC2 cluster, the IRT Jules
Vernes, but also academics and
other Airbus subsidiaries. The
Technocentre team is around
35 people, dedicated to advanced manufacturing technologies and providing a very
wide range of services to Airbus
but also to external companies.
Its four main areas of activity
are:
1 - Research and technology:
creating demonstrators, testing
new materials, R&D of new
methods for repairing composites, new assembly technologies (drilling and fittings),
innovative improvements to air
inlet technologies, etc.
2 - Goods and services: all
services based on the available
industrial means, such as
manufacturing of demonstrators, coupons, small serial
productions or curing in
autoclaves. The Technocentre
proposes aut-omatic fibre
placement with thermoset and
thermoplastic composite fibres,
but also a workshop dedicated
to RTM/LRI.
The Technocentre has internal
customers like Airbus Operations in Toulouse, the

engineering department, and
external companies.
3 - Repairs: the ten highskilled operators from the
Techno-centre's repair station
travel worldwide to repair
aircrafts as part of Airbus aftersales services. They are called
the "Go Team", and are always
ready to go, suitcase in hand.
With the growth of composite
structures on Airbus' aircraft,
the ability to repair is becoming
essential.
4 - Training: Training modules
are proposed for Airbus
newcomers but also to external
people wishing to learn how to
manufacture composite parts
or to assemble composite or
hybrid stacks. These trainings
are performed in an operational
environment with experimented trainers. Training modules
have been imagined for
operators and for engineers.
They are designed and
developed in coordination with
the innovation, continuous
improvement and production
teams, with a view to improving
processes.
Under the management of
Philippe Leseur, the Technocentre already serves customers
like
Stelia
Aerospace,
Socomore, Loiretech and IRT
Jules Vernes. It has almost the
full range of new composite
processing tech-nologies at its
disposal, and continues to
develop others.
Thanks to its location and
activities, the Technocentre is a
good place for small companies
and startups to get to work with
Airbus and have access to a
production capacity.
More information:
www.airbus.com
http://www.airbus.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #111 - March 2017 - Special JEC World - o
