Project R-6618

Next generation manufacturing platform for aerospace composites (Research)

Aerospace components made of composites are "near-netshape" made: additional machining steps (contouring, deburring, drilling, etc) are required to desired functionalities or assembly requirements. Due to the specifications of composites (layers, fibres, stacks), these finishing operations are very difficult and expensive. The most important machining challenges in drilling and milling aerospace composites are: - delamination: layers of the composite that loosen during machining, - burr formation: badly cut fibers sticking out, - fraying: little parts of the top layers that have chipped, - extensive tool wear: due to high machining temperatures and the abrasive nature of the fibers - and high machining costs since often diamond (tipped or coated) tools are used in an attempt to obtain a qualitative machining process. To avoid this, a process stability needs to be achieved. Most of the improvements in academic research are on subtopics: tools, coatings, machine development,... This leads to very small incremental steps. A real breakthrough can be achieved when combining different innovative ideas on all the aspects, in an integrated way. Project goal & objectives: The overall goal of this project is to develop and integrated platform for a cost-effective manufacturing of aerospace composites. This has to reduce the production time by 50% and the production costs by 60%.

01 February 2016 - 30 November 2018