APPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES OF PREPREG FORMING TECHNOLOGIES IN AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY

For manufacturing of lightweight aircraft structures, stiffened panels are a main element. In the industrial manufacturing process the prepreg forming process is closing the gap between the efficient production of laminates with automated processes and the requirement of complex profile production. However, a high quality result from the forming process is not trivial to achieve and changing materials and shapes for new implementations are creating a constant challenge for process development. Recently, some progress has been made in the field of process simulation but still deeper understanding on the material behaviour is required to further increase the efficiency of the forming processes and successfully compete with different composite manufacturing strategies.