Home / News / Hexcel to debut carbon fiber & aerospace prepreg at JEC

Hexcel to debut carbon fiber & aerospace prepreg at JEC

04 Mar '14

6 min read

At JEC Europe 2014 Hexcel will be promoting the latest innovations developed for aerospace and industrial markets. In addition to launching a new carbon fiber and aerospace prepreg, Hexcel is showcasing some of the latest customer applications for which Hexcel’s composites are “the strength within”.

HexTow HM63 carbon fiber

Hexcel is adding to its extensive range of IM and AS fibers by launching a new High Modulus carbon fiber, called HexTow HM63. This new fiber has the highest tensile strength of any HM fiber and provides outstanding translation of fiber properties in a composite, including superior interlaminar shear and compression shear strength. It is therefore ideal for any high stiffness and strength-critical applications including space, satellites, UAV, commercial aerospace and helicopters. It also meets the special requirements for premium sports and recreation applications including F1, marine craft, bikes and fishing rods.

At JEC Hexcel will be display a ThermoSet Carbon (TSC) cable for yacht rigging manufactured by Future Fibres, using HexTow HM63 high modulus carbon fiber for low weight, high break strength and resistance to impact.

NEW HexPly M92 prepreg for aerospace structures

Hexcel is launching HexPly M92, a prepreg that combines all the major benefits achieved individually with other 125°C curing epoxy resins in one new “multi-purpose” system. These benefits include excellent hot wet Tg performance of 115°C, allowing HexPly M92 to operate at higher service temperatures from a lower cost 125°C cure. The system is self-adhesive to honeycomb, making it suitable for sandwich structures as well as monolithic components. Other benefits include high toughness, fire resistance, low exotherm, a long out/tack life and the ability to cure by vacuum bag. HexPly M92 is available in a wide range of prepreg forms (woven and UD tape).

At the JEC show, Hexcel will display a Helicopter Rotor Hub Cap Fairing manufactured by Airbus Helicopters. This oven-cured part is a honeycomb sandwich structure in which the prepreg is bonded directly to the non-metallic core, without any additional adhesive. Airbus Helicopters estimates that weight savings of 8 to 15% will be achieved by manufacturing this part from HexPly M92, depending on the helicopter type.

HexPly M77 “Snap Cure” prepreg

To further extend the use of thermoset resins in mass produced composite parts Hexcel has developed HexPly M77, a rapid curing epoxy prepreg that allows automotive components and sports goods to be press-cured in a 2-minute cycle at 150°C (80 bar pressure).