Development of a guideline for the dimensional stability of aircraft interior panels

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In the last forty years, the composite materials increased from single-digit percentages to more than 40 percentof airframe weight. Weight reductions achieved with composites reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gasemissions. Today, single-aisle passenger jets boast from a few hundred to a few thousand pounds of compositesper airframe. And during the next decade, the production of advanced composites for airframe components isexpected to grow by more than 200 percent worldwide. Subject to many of the same performance demands thatdrive those who build aircraft primary structures, designers and manufacturers of aircraft interiors have turnedto composite materials. Interior composites are no less crucial to the operating-cost and revenue-generationdiscussion. In fact, for many commercial aircraft, the weight of composite interiors significantly exceeds theweight of composite airframe structures.Zodiac Aerospace (ZA) is manufacturing cabin interiors for the aviation industry utilizing composite paneltechnologies. Variability of composite panels caused by warping, twisting, bowing or bending observed on theas received panel or at any point during the manufacturing process can significantly increase production costs.The panel dimensional control problem increases scrap rate, inspection costs, and engineering costs whichultimately can cause delays in delivery targets to the customer.The objective of this project is to propose a solution to improve dimensional stability of composite panels foraircraft interiors. The process currently used by ZA to produce, store, manipulate and machine the panels willbe reviewed. Using advanced composite material process simulation tools, new guidelines will be developed toreduce and control dimensional stability issues during the manufacturing of aircraft interiors. Besides theeconomic benefits of an improved process, cost efficiency results in a more stable and reproducible process.