Better value, faster, lighter: Premium AEROTEC wins JEC Innovation Award 2009
The recently founded German aerostructures supplier Premium AEROTEC has won the JEC Innovation Award 2009. It is conferred every year at the JEC Composites Show in Paris for the best innovations in composites applications. The distinguished international jury rewarded a new technological process that allows large aircraft components made of carbon-fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) to be manufactured less expensively, faster and lighter than before. The prize award ceremony took place today in Paris.
Paris, 24 March 2009
The engineers of the former EADS site in Augsburg – part and headquarters of the new company Premium AEROTEC since January – have developed a process that allows large CFRP components to be manufac-tured not only at less cost and with lower weight, but also around 20 percent faster than before.
Whereas conventional manufacturing methods used for aircraft structures required a separate assembly step to join the stringers to the skin, the new process allows them to be joined in a single step, with the stringers and skin being produced in a single integrated process (‘one shot’). This not only saves precious time, but also thousands of fasteners between the skin and the stringers – and thus weight. In comparison to conventional production methods, the prizewinning structure uses about 3,000 less fasteners.
The structure, which is about 7x4 meters in size, is the world’s largest CFRP aircraft structure produced by resin infusion in ‘one shot’ (skin and stringer) for a pressurized section of the fuselage. The mentioned component is the upper cargo door for the Airbus A400M transport aircraft.
Manufacturing of this technological innovation has been made possible by the VAP® vacuum assisted process, developed and patented in-house, which uses a vacuum to facilitate the infusion of resin into the carbon veil. An advantage of this new technology: expensive autoclaves can be dispensed with; a temperature-controlled oven is sufficient to harden the resin. In addition to the cost benefits, this patented technology also stands out from conventional processes with its short manufacturing time as well as considerable weight reduction of the components.
Airbus was not the only customer impressed by the new technology: apart from the cargo door for the A400M, Premium AEROTEC also manufactures the pressure bulkhead for the B787 Dreamliner in VAP® technology.
Hans Lonsinger, CEO of Premium AEROTEC, can well imagine extending this technology to other sectors of industry, such as transportation, machine construction or power engineering. “The VAP® technology is unique worldwide and will not only set new standards in aircraft construction but will also prove successful in other sectors of industry.”
The cargo door made using VAP® technology will be on display in the "Showcase" at the JEC Composites Show in Paris, from 24 - 26 March.
Premium AEROTEC has more than 6,000 employees and expects to gen-erate revenues of about one billion Euros for 2009. Premium AEROTEC’s core business is the development and manufacturing of metal and carbon composite aerostructures and the corresponding production systems. The company has plants in Augsburg, Nordenham and Varel and is part of the EADS Group.
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| Premium AEROTEC GmbH 86136 Augsburg GERMANY |
Tel.: +49(0)821 801 63009 Cellphone: +49(0)171 372 3196 Fax: +49(0)821 801 62093 www.premium-aerotec.com mailto: manfred.knappe@premium-aerotec.com |
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