Development of a structured approach to evaluate and optimize resin infusion molding

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Composite materials offer a unique combination of strength to weight ratios, durability, and cost-saving manufacturing opportunities. These unique performance and manufacturing properties explain why the main aerospace companies such as Boeing and Airbus, have fully adopted this technology. As a result, the demand for composite materials in the global aerospace composite market has recorded a continuous growth over the past decade and is forecasted to grow to $4.7 billion in 2019. To maintain their market share, suppliers to the large aerospace companies, such as ASCO Aerospace Canada, need to quickly embrace this new technology. Over the past 30 years, ASCO Aerospace Canada has developed extensive capabilities in the assembly and machining of metallic aircraft structures but has not yet established a similar expertise with composite material technologies. ASCO Aerospace Canada would like to extend its service portfolio to the manufacturing of complex fairing structures using resin infusion process and wants to improve their knowledge of this process technology. ASCO Aerospace Canada has requested the assistance of the Composites Research Network (CRN), at the University of British Columbia, to offer guidance in this field. The goal of this project is to create and validate a workflow to evaluate and optimize resin infusion processes at the conceptual level. The workflow will provide a methodology by which material and process options can be optimally selected using a pragmatic mixture of process simulation, experiments, and common knowledge. The integrated methodology will assess the performance and costs of material and process options using the state of the art in composites process simulation and decision-making.