Belgium’s Solvay has announced the launch of CYCOM EP2190, an epoxy-based system offering outstanding toughness in thick and thin structures combined with excellent in-plane performance in hot/wet and cold/dry environments.

As the company’s new flagship product for aerospace primary structures, the material rivals’ incumbent solutions for wing and fuselage applications across most aviation market segments, including urban air mobility (UAM), private and commercial aerospace segments (sub and supersonic) to defence and rotorcraft, according to a Solvay press release.

One of the strengths of the new prepreg system is its superior toughness combined with excellent hot-wet compression properties offering an ideal balance of performance. In addition, CYCOM EP2190 offers robust manufacturing performance allowing for fabrication of parts with complex shapes using manual or automated fabrication methods. This prepreg system will enable customers to use the same material for multiple targeted applications.

CYCOM EP2190  performance has been demonstrated during customer trials at several US and European UAM, commercial jet and rotorcraft manufacturers.  Product configurations include uni-directional carbon fibre grades and woven fabrics.

At a time when fast adoption and reduced certification costs are essential for innovative applications, Solvay is able to provide customers with a preliminary database of CYCOM EP2190 followed by a full NCAMP (National Centre for Advanced Materials Performance) public database of the material available in 2022.

“The growing customer base within the aerospace industry has a demand for composite materials that offer balanced in-plane, damage tolerance, and manufacturing performance. We are proud to introduce CYCOM EP2190, a versatile new prepreg developed to provide significant benefits over traditional primary structure systems and a solution that meets demand for both performance and manufacturability,” Stephen Heinz, head of composite R&I said.