Advanced Winding Capability For Next Generation Thermoplastic Composite Tapes

新冠肺炎疫情严重扰乱了航空航天业，并对整个供应链产生了破坏性影响。因此，许多航空公司正在加快淘汰波音747等燃油效率低下的老旧飞机的计划，并寻求运营更环保的轻型复合材料飞机。目前，空客A350的复合材料含量最高，达到53%，但未来有机会用可回收的复合材料替代品取代金属部件。Bindatex先进材料切割专门从事航空航天自动化纤维放置的碳纤维复合材料胶带的精确切割，这项技术是使用热固性复合材料的轻量化飞机的关键，这种材料具有减轻飞机重量的优势，但不幸的是目前还不能回收利用。通过使用可回收的数字印刷复合材料部件来取代金属部件，已经确定了航空航天领域进一步轻量化的机会。Bindatex一直在开发技术，将连续的碳纤维格式化成细丝，这是推动这项技术进步所必需的。该项目的成功将有助于实现数字复合印刷的商业化，并确保英国在碳纤维长丝的转换和格式化方面保持领先地位，同时为回收过程中产生的废料创造机会。

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely disrupted the aerospace industry and it has had a devastating effect on the whole supply chain. As a consequence many airlines are accelerating plans to retire older fuel inefficient aircraft such as Boeing 747's and look to operate more environmentally friendly lightweight composite aircraft. Currently the Airbus A350 has the highest composite content at 53% but there are further opportunities to replace metallic parts with recyclable composite alternatives.Bindatex Advanced Materials Cutting specialises in the precision slitting of carbon fibre composites tapes for automated fibre placement in aerospace and this technology has been key to light weighting aircraft with thermoset composite materials which have the advantage of reducing the weight of aircraft but unfortunately are not currently recyclable.Further light weighting opportunities in aerospace have been identified by using recyclable digitally printed composite components to replace metallic parts. Bindatex has been developing technologies to format continuous carbon fibres into filaments which are needed to enable the progress of this technology. Success of the project will will help lead to the commercialisation of Digital Composite Printing and ensure that the UK remains at the forefront of the converting and formatting of the carbon fibre filaments whilst creating opportunities to recycle the in process waste created within the process.