Full scale innovative composite pax and cargo floor grids for regional Aircraft Fuselage barrel on -ground demonstrators.

Project Information

SPARE

Grant agreement ID: 820840

DOI

10.3030/820840

Project closed

EC signature date 28 September 2018

Start date 1 October 2018

End date 30 November 2021

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 1 433 375,00

EU contribution

€ 1 110 387,50

Coordinated by

OFFICINE MECCANICHE IRPINE SRL
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SPARE (Full scale innovative composite pax and cargo floor grids for regional Aircraft Fuselage barrel on -ground demonstrators.)

Reporting period: 2020-04-01 to 2021-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The object of Full scale innovative composite pax and cargo floor grids for Regional Aircraft Fuselage barrel on-ground demonstrators project is to fabricate two full ship sets of pax and cargo floor grids with innovative solutions for components integration and high volume automated solutions.

All parts of floor grids was manufactured according manufacturing processes defined with the TM.
Any deviation compared to as required in the 3D model was tracked with deviation permit, if it is detected in advance. In addition, any non conformity identified after parts manufactured was describe in cerftificate of conformance of the parts and was discussed with the TM in order to understand if the part cauld be accepted also with deviation.

Technical, economic and wight impact deriving from the introduction of the selected innovative technology was investigate in the final deliverable in order to underline the obtained results.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the first reporting period production technology to be used for each part of pax and cargo floor was fixed. Infact, the technology indicated in the project proposal for some items was confirmed, in other cases, due to design and construction constraints, the technology has changed as for the pax floor beam that will be manufactured in thermoset composites.

The following activities were done during this period:

• FEM simulation of PRF production process activities were concluded in time
• Tools design and realization for the induction welding of thermoplastic composite profiles are been concluded
• IRT procedure for the real time monitoring of PRF production process was designed and tested on real scale
• Tools design and manufactured for composite parts are been concluded

During the second reporting period the major part of activities were closed in order to ship the the cargo floor grid to the topic manager.
Thermoplastic items of cargo floor grid were manufactured, welded thanks to induction welding and drilled and trimmed with CNC machining in order to obtain the final shape according to the 3D model. The last step, before dimensional control, was the painting of all thermoplastic items.
All the metallic parts both of cargo and pax floor grid were CNC machining and surface treatment was done according to TM.
As required, the cargo floor grid was shipped as spare parts, instead for the pax floor design and manufacturing of assembly jig was required.

SPARE showcased the obtained results with a dissemination and communication activities in line with its plan participating in international fairs, conferences, B2B meetings with aerospace industry companies and national technical workshops and webinars. Moreover, additional actions were performed such as web site and social media management and update, periodic e-Newsletters publication, liaison with other sister projects, and media kit design and update.
Finally, in order to push the SPARE solutions to go to the market, the main exploitable results were identified and characterized with an initial exploitation plan.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The ambition of SPARE project is to resolve the open issues of Progressive Roll Forming and to optimize the process for industrial application.
Moreover, the ambition of SPARE project is to use induction welding for the manufacturing of H-Shaped bars, using in-line continuous Induction Welding technique on the two C-Shaped bars obtained by progressive roll forming.
The achievement of this purpose will provide a significant contribution to the aeronautic industry, since will be a considerable result in the direction of developing complex and highly loaded parts with reduced costs and increased reliability.

Starting from a technical point of view project results are expected to introduce some innovative features in pax and cargo floor grid for Regional Aircraft Fuselage:
1. Weight Reduction: Target value attended for weight reduction thanks to composite material is around 20% compared to aluminium solution.
2. Cost Reduction: If compared with aluminium solution, composite processes can involve a manufacturing cost reduction of 40%.
3. Maintenance Cost Reduction: The introduction of composite materials represent the most important feature in life cycle management cost of the components; more over composites offer also additional capability in repairing cycles. A reduction of 50% for maintenance cost is attendeed.

The technological solutions promote the use of advanced lightweight composite materials and an overall reduction of weight leads to a further reduction of fuel consumption and consequently to a reduction of air pollution. In this way SPARE will make a significant contribution to meeting the ambitious challenges towards the greening of air transport.

The major socio-economic impact of the SPARE project will be the reinforcement of the competitiveness of Europe’s aircraft industry and European aircraft operators. This is in full alignment with the European Union strong focus on innovation as a basis for societal growth and prosperity, as well as the emphasis placed on the R&D impact on job creation, societal growth and investment associated with the creation of a strong industrial base and on reducing the environmental impact of technology in line with a forward-looking climate change policy.

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