GKN Aerospace has reached a major milestone in the ‘Wing of Tomorrow’ program after designing, manufacturing, and delivering a mid-scale demonstrator tool to the GKN Aerospace Filton facility. This tool provides a fully functioning automated low pressure RTM system for the Airbus-led programme’s composite wing spar. The spar is considered one of the most challenging aerospace components to design and manufacture, and this will be one of the first times that RTM technology has been used on this scale.
GKN Aerospace engineers have used proven tool-making knowledge from the automotive industry in developing the demonstrator. The four-metre development testbed will deliver a rate 60 automated manufacturing solutions and significantly improve the productivity of the composite manufacturing process, by removing one third of the production steps involved.
Technology will be moving from traditional, pre-impregnated resin material to dry composite fibers that are injected with resin as part of the initial manufacturing process for the wing spar. This will result in significant weight savings. GKN Aerospace is using its world-leading capability in design and manufacture of composite Wing Spars and assembly of Fixed Trailing Edges – as proven on the A330, A400M and A350 – to mature the key technologies. The development work will stretch into 2021.
