Airbus seeks lighter cabin brackets by 3D printing carbon fiber composites

Carbon fiber composite material is a material composed of many carbon fiber tows arranged in a certain direction, and then they are mixed with resin, ceramic, metal and other matrices to form a material
.
Compared with traditional metal materials, carbon fiber composite materials have the advantages of low density, high specific strength/specific stiffness, corrosion resistance, fatigue resistance, high temperature resistance, easy design, and easy large-area integral molding processing
.

Today, the market for 3D-printed carbon fiber composites is gearing up for volume manufacturing, with Arris Composites partnering with Airbus on composites research to lighten cabin brackets
.

sustainable development prospects

There are three major trends in the development of 3D printing of composite materials.
First, the industrialization of processes and systems will be seen, and the combination of hardware and software development will support mass production
.
The second is more sensing control of the system for real-time process control - thermal, dimensional and optical sensing to improve process tolerances
.
Third, new software for improving the efficiency of 3D printing operations (e.
g.
, preprocessing workflow, job management, etc.
) is more mature, allowing for more in-depth new design and simulation of multi-material parts
.

Sustainable Air Travel Development

Arris Composites from Gary, USA, has revealed a research project with Airbus focused on the production of nacelle brackets
.
The project aims to achieve significant reductions in aviation emissions through the use of innovative manufacturing methods and materials, including composite materials
.

According to Arris Composites, replacing the metal support (220 grams) with a topology-optimized, aligned continuous fiber composite part (50 grams) resulted in a weight reduction of more than 75 percent
.
The reduction in weight also translates into highly optimized fuel savings, as hundreds of these brackets are part of an aircraft
.

If you look at the weight reduction from a larger perspective, if you build 100 aircraft a year, each aircraft is equipped with 500 brackets, plus 50,000 lighter brackets, which will help in the Save 113 million metric tons of fuel and reduce CO2 emissions by 357 million metric tons over the life of the aircraft
.

According to Airbus, bionic design, topology-optimized design and advanced composite materials are the future, and Arris Composites, combining the advantages of 3D printing with the advantages of composite materials, is helping the industry to combine these design and material ideals to create the future of flight
.

In addition, Arris Composites' additive molding technology, which combines additive manufacturing and high-speed compression molding processes, will have a huge impact on replacement parts and future aircraft structures, proving that it is possible to reduce carbon emissions
.
Airbus itself is committed to exploring such technological avenues to support its vision of more sustainable air travel for future generations
.