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

Parts produced with HiTape and Hexcel’s HexFlow infusion resins can be up to 30mm thick with a 58 to 60% Fiber Volume Content, resulting in mechanical properties that are as high as those achieved with primary structure prepregs.

To demonstrate the potential of HiTape for cost and cycle efficient next generation aircraft primary structures, Hexcel has worked with Aerolia SAS and Coriolis Composites to design and manufacture an aircraft fuselage panel demonstrator that will be on display at JEC.

Aerolia SAS is a major world player in the design and production of aircraft equipped fuselages. Coriolis Composites is a leader in the development and manufacture of automated fiber placement processes for composites.

The fuselage panel is a self-stiffened skin that was designed by Aerolia to meet the mechanical performance requirements for primary structures. Coriolis Composites developed the dry Automated Fiber Placement process for the full scale fuselage skin demonstrator - and the dry preforms were made at Compositadour’s facilities.

The HiTape preform skin and stiffeners were infused with HexFlow RTM6 resin at Hexcel’s new Applications Laboratory in Les Avenieres, close to Lyon, using a co-infusion process that was developed in-house.

The resulting fuselage panel demonstrates that parts made with HiTape and HexFlow RTM6 meet the high mechanical performance requirements for primary structures, including toughness.

HiTape is a cost-effective, highly automated solution for the manufacture of aircraft primary structures that enables aircraft designers to meet the cost and build rate targets for next generation aircraft, while retaining the weight-saving benefits that are achieved with prepregs.

Hexcel Innovations