Like engineers in other transportation industries, commercial aircraft designers are racing to create lighter weight, less costly components while maintaining structural integrity. New materials for manufacturing structural and non-structural components are being developed for interior and exterior applications. These include lighter, stronger, and faster-curing carbon fiber and glass composites, and lighter weight metals and alloys. For interiors, new constructions contain microcellular or honeycomb cores or glass bubbles.
Although composites, especially carbon fiber-based, receive a lot of attention, most structural materials in commercial aircraft are still metals, primarily aluminum and its alloys. According to a new study of lightweighting materials in transportation, in many cases, aluminum is the best material for the short term, since it doesn't disrupt manufacturing patterns. The Lux Research report, "Structural Navigation: Optimizing Materials Selection in Automotive and Aerospace," contains multiple decision-tree analyses. These help determine which materials are best used where in several transportation applications, now and during the next 10 years.
Components made of microcellular polyurethane elastomers, such as this jounce bumper or spring aid made of BASF's Cellasto, can reduce weight, absorb shock, and dampen sound and vibration in aircraft interiors. (Source: BASF)
In the last five to seven years the aerospace industry has learned that carbon fiber doesn't make sense for every application, said Tony Morales, Alcoa's global marketing director for aerospace and defense rolled products:
From the design and build standpoint, aluminum has high performance and low weight at a lower cost than the alternatives. It doesn't require building new factories, new hangars, new supply chains, new ovens, or doing R&D for new inspection and repair techniques. In metal wing structures, you only have mass where it's needed. In carbon fiber it's harder to fine-tune complex shapes.
Alcoa is working with aircraft OEMs on new structural approaches that combine selective reinforcement techniques and advanced structural concepts with new materials.
Its third-generation aluminum-lithium alloys, introduced last year, have higher strength-to-weight ratios and better stiffness and corrosion resistance. Their densities range from 2 percent to 10 percent lower than traditional aluminum, depending on the amount of lithium. Most of the new generation is around 5 percent lower density. They are being used in extrusions, forgings, and sheet and plate applications in several aircraft structures, including airplane wings and fuselage. Alcoa expects to reach full production by the end of 2012 in two facilities, and by the end of 2014 in its Lafayette, Ind. facility.
Composite makers are also involved in major efforts to improve their materials as competition with aluminum alloys heats up. The main areas of development include improving strength and toughness, adapting component shapes to specific loads or environmental conditions, and reducing costs by finding better processing methods to speed up laydown rates, said Carmelo Lo Faro, Cytec's vice president of technology.
Very comprehensive overview of the state of materials exploration in the aerospace industry. It was interesting to me that companies don't see composites as the be-all, end-all solution--a surprise given that so much attention and hype is focused on their deployment. I was also pleased to see that companies are keeping somewhat of a watchful eye on sustainability concerns as they vet out these new materials.
Beth, I also found it enlightening to discover the mix of materials being developed for, and used in, in bleeding-edge aircraft design. But composites are, in fact, a big part of all this, so it's not all hype. It was a big surprise, and encouraging, to see that sustainability concerns are finally reaching and influencing this industry, like so many others.
I saw no mention of cellular steel (superalloy) products. Inside and near turbine engines, the temperatures are too high for most of the materials mentioned. In fact the temperatures seem to be rising, to the point that many parts that were traditionally made of titanium alloys are failing. For quite a few years, we've been working both on traditional superalloy honeycomb and on other brazed cellular structures that can replace titanium and withstand much higher temperatures, and yet be weight-neutral or even weight-saving.
CPDick, thanks for that information. We focused on structural and interior component materials for this feature, not engines, but that's good input. It's especially interesting that temperatures are outpacing titanium. Can you give us your company name for possible followup?
You bet! It's Vertechs Enterprises (vertechsusa.com)
I just looked, and realized that the non-honeycomb sandwich products are not yet shown on our website. We have a number of such products that we have been developing and testing with major aerospace companies for quite a few years, and are just about to start producing our first full-scale product samples.
How totaly novel and unprecedented, building an airplane out of light strong fibrous composites. Ideas like that don't grow on trees. Wait---Or did they?
Maybe there's a reason why Boeing located its first factory in Washington State.
sometimes new ideas generate new discovweries, consider a study of all species of bird feathers and the incredible design weight, lift, etc etc, flexible wings to use both mechanical power and atmospheric changes , perhaps the ultra lights culd take on a new perspective> my wing collection has some very old feathers that have not changed over time as I keep studing these designs which are incredible' I think there is legislation forbading feather collections, but I have a deep native american background, the race card and holocaust is not in my deck. My spirit remembers the genocide of americas 20,000 tribes, and the role buffalo soldiers played when freed. I worked for a time at LTV Aerospace in the 60's on the A-7 series, while no bird is powered with fuel they can indeed do some pretty tricky stunts, like gliding for hours, with small wing shifts , in acord with atmospheric variables, fins do compensate to keep on course, but consideration of actual feathers may be in our future. whatever. Birds of prey do reach considerable speed, without any fuel at all,
Inspired by the hooks a parasitic worm uses to penetrate its host's intestines, the Karp Lab has invented a flexible adhesive patch covered with microneedles that adheres well to wet, soft tissues, but doesn't cause damage when removed.
Engineers at the University of California, San Diego are designing a robotic arm that takes inspiration from the loose, flexible, yet very strong structure of the armored plates on a seahorse's tail.
Researchers at the Missouri University of Science & Technology have designed a new nanoscale material that can transmit light faster than the 186,000 miles per second it usually takes to travel through air.
It has often been said that as California goes, so goes the nation. This spring, the state's wind power is setting energy generation records and solar energy generation is expected to rise sharply during the second half of 2013.
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