CompositesWorld
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95 CompositesWorld.com NEWS N E W S N S N E W S E N W S W Fokker Aerostructures material supplier TenCate (Nijverdal, the Netherlands) and with prospec- tive customers. Initial customers were the owner, Fokker Aircraft company, Dornier (Friedrichshafen, Germany) and Airbus (Toulouse, France). Tus, an ever- growing range of products was developed and taken into production. Tis ranged from initial applications, such as brackets, ribs, wing panels and foor panels, to fully assembled structures, including wing leading edges, rudders and eleva- tors. A key player on the team proved to be gifted R&D; engineer John Teunissen, who created and developed several new manufacturing technologies and product concepts. In 1995, a breakthrough was the development of Gulf- stream 5 foor boards, which included primary structure pressure bulkheads. Tis led to a move towards fabrication of thermoplastic composite primary structure, with corresponding engineering and manufacturing knowledge. Our hosts during our plant tour are Richard Cobben, VP tech- nology, and Arnt Ofringa, director, R&D.; Well-known in the composites community for his thermoplastic composite exper- tise, Ofringa guides us on the tour of Fokker's large facility in Hoogeveen. Before the tour, Cobben presents the diferent Fokker companies. Ten, in advance of leading us to the production foor, Ofringa reviews some of the parts and structures that Fokker manufactures at the plant, most notably the rudder/elevator for the Gulfstream G650 business jet (see "Learn More"), elevators and foorboards for the Gulfstream 5 business jet, rudder and elevators for the Dassault Falcon 5X, the wing leading edge for the Airbus A380 superjumbo passenger plane, and all of the access doors for all of the variants of the F-35 Lightning II fghter jet. With the exception of the F-35, each of these applications relies on thermo- plastics and it's thermoplastic composites on which the Fokker name now stands. A strong proponent of thermoplastics, Ofringa believes they will see only increased use and application in the aerospace market. Te material, he notes, ofers a toughness — as opposed to brittle- ness — that thermosets can't match, making them suitable for use in structural and semi-structural applications. "New designs can, therefore, be lighter in weight because the amount of composite plies can be reduced," he contends. "Welded thermoplastic rudders and elevators are 10% lighter than their thermoset composite predecessors because of the so-called 'post-buckled' design" (discussed below). Tat said, thermo- plastic composites fabrication at Fokker is not, as some thermo- plastics proponents claim, an out-of-autoclave process. Indeed, the company still relies heavily on the autoclave to ensure that its products meet porosity goals (Fig. 1, 94). "I know we like to think of thermoplastics as not needing autoclave cure, but for large parts, Fig. 1 Autoclaved thermoplastic composites Although Fokker is famous for its thermo- plastics expertise, the company still relies on the autoclave to consoli- date many parts as they cool after forming because it remains the best tool for meeting porosity specifcations. Source (all photos) | CW / Photos /Jef Sloan & Sara Black Fig. 2 Themoplastics enable innovative rudder/elevator combo These thermoplastic spars are for the Gulfstream G650 rudder/elevator and feature a design that, because of the material's high toughness, allows for in-fight buckling, without damage or failure. Fig. 3 In-house equipment development Much of the thermoplastic composites innovation that comes out of Fokker is a product of the company's research and development lab, which features this automated fber placement (AFP) machine, equipped with a Fokker-developed end-efector.