Fokker Aerostructures' thermoplastic aircraft components can be welded together to eliminate costly drilling and riveting work. Until recently, primary aircraft structures were generally made from a combination of thermoset composites and aluminium. This year, however, all that changed when engineers at Netherlands-based Fokker Aerostructures announced that they had developed the world's first induction-welded thermoplastic composite primary structures for the tail section of the new Gulfstream G650 aircraft. The development of the composite rudder and elevator came about as the result of a co-operative effort between Fokker and a number of its key suppliers. Ticona, for example, provided its Fortran polyphenylene sulphide (PPS) thermoplastic polymer to Tencate Aerospace Composites, which used it to manufacture the carbon-fibre-based semipreg and plate materials.
展开▼
