CompositesWorld

JAN 2018

CompositesWorld

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JANUARY 2018 30 CompositesWorld PLANT TOUR and physical and mechanical requirements of the structure: • Hand lamination without vacuum bag. • Hand lamination/automated lamination with vacuum bag. • Automated lamination with vacuum bag in a pressure chamber. • Automated lamination with vacuum bag and medium heated pressure chamber (autoclave). • Resin Infusion. e process limits greatly the shelf life of the wet-preg, Bausek admits, which means that plies must be laid up as soon as they are impregnated, but the quality of the finished structure meets the company's needs well. Cutting, kitting Bausek begins the plant tour in the company's cutting and kitting area, which features a film-covered floor and film-covered cutting tables. Currently, wet-preg comes into this room following SIDE STORY Christian Dries, CEO of Diamond Aircraft (Wiener Neustadt, Austria), knows all about crashworthiness. More than 35 years ago, as he worked to earn his pilot's license, one of the tests he had to pass was to pull a plane out of an intentional spin. He was flying an all-metal aircraft, and during the test, he says, a wing almost detached from the plane. Indeed, after he regained control of the plane and landed, he discovered that only five rivets still held the wing in place. "From that day onward," he says, "I was very reluctant about airplane structure. And the more I learned about airplanes, the less confidence I had in airplanes." So, when he founded Diamond Aircraft and started manufacturing them, safety became the company's guiding principle, and composites, says Dries, "were best for that." Thus was launched Diamond Aircraft's push toward the development of composite materials and structures that best provide safety and economy. As a testament to the advantage conveyed by composites, Dries points to his company's DART 450 two-seat trainer, which went from concept to first flight in a mere 367 days. "This is only possible because of composites," he argues. Today, Dries claims, Diamond Aircraft is, from a composites perspective, years ahead of its competitors and "10-20 years ahead of the regulatory authorities." This makes aircraft testing and certification a challenge. "Compos- ites are the ideal material for airplanes," Dries insists, "but with regulatory authorities, we must work to evolve standards." Over the next five years, Dries expects the Wiener Neustadt facility will evolve to focus exclusively on research, development and low-rate production, with serial production done at other Diamond Aircraft plants. Today those are located in Canada and China, but Dries plans to add two or three other facilities in the coming three years. In the meantime, personnel will continue to innovate — with composites and other technologies, including autonomous piloting, and improved radar and camera technologies. And what's on the drawing board? A helicopter, Dries says. Outside of aerospace but still within composites, Dries' other company, DAS Energy (also in Wiener Neustadt), is working on new photovoltaic solar panel technology that uses a flexible glass fiber composite membrane. "We are looking for opportunities to solve other problems," he says. The man behind Diamond Aircraft FIG. 2 Wet-preg the material format of choice Wet-preg plies for Diamond Aircraft composite structures are impregnated either by hand or by machine but all are currently cut to precise size by hand prior to layup. The company's wet-preg material has proven difficult to cut using automated ply-cutting systems, although investigation continues into ways and means to do so, particularly in a series production environment. Source | CW / Photo | Jeff Sloan Bausek says, "It is not easy to certify a fully bonded aircraft, but we have never had an aircraft structure failure caused by bondline failure." Diamond Aircraft also emphasizes simplicity of design, equip- ment and technology to give the pilot a comfortable and manage- able flying experience, combined with easy customization of features and aircraft color. is extends to maintenance as well. All Diamond Aircraft wings, for example, are bolt-on structures, which eases repair and replacement and reduces cost of ownership. Finally, the company's operations are very much characterized by its manufacturing systems, which revolve around "wet-preg," which is the process of applying mixed resin to dry fiber immedi- ately prior to layup. is is called lamination at Diamond Aircraft and it is done for all larger parts automatically, the latter of which is accomplished with in-house developed fiber impregnation machines. Bausek says Diamond Aircraft primarily employs five material/manufacturing combinations, depending on the location

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