New Cost Effective Manufacturing Technologies for Future CFRP Passenger and Cargo Doors

摘要

The feasibility of CFRP passenger doors has been demonstrated in several research projects. The industrial application of CFRP passenger and cargo doors will be proven in serial programmes in the near future. However, the potential of weight-saving in the range of more than 10 percent combined with superior fatigue features in a corrosion-free design is currently countered by the risk of increased cost compared to conventional metal designs. Various studies have shown that not the material cost is the burden, but primarily the labour cost in the manufacturing cost breakdown. As a possible concept to improve the cost situation the highly integral composite assemblies, composed from large modules with a minimum of joining elements were found. This paper presents the evolution of manufacturing technologies from the one-shot door structure of the research project FUBACOMP over the application of stitching technologies in FLEXNAHT to the modular door structure concepts of LOKOST and TCT. New material candidates are introduced as well as new manufacturing and inspection processes. Particularly the in-line inspection of the whole process chain seems to be a necessary pre-condition for reduced overall cost.