Descripción del proyecto
Tecnologías de fabricación por adición para las juntas de las aeronaves
Las juntas flexibles se utilizan en las alas de las aeronaves para evitar que el aire fluya por los huecos que quedan entre las distintas superficies. Esto podría causar averías en el componente aerodinámico. En la actualidad, las juntas requieren un proceso de fabricación costoso y largo por inyección de plástico, lo que impide que las juntas diseñadas rindan tal como es necesario. Las tecnologías de fabricación por adición ofrecen un claro potencial para resolver estos problemas, pero su uso en el sector aeronáutico es limitado. El equipo del proyecto ADDAPTTA SEALS, financiado con fondos europeos, pretende personalizar la formulación de los materiales existentes, que tengan propiedades reciclables, para establecer un proceso óptimo mediante tecnologías de fabricación por adición para el funcionamiento de las aeronaves. Los resultados mejorarán el rendimiento aerodinámico al reducir el consumo de combustible y la contaminación, los costes de mantenimiento y los residuos.
Objetivo
Primary mission of the wing and the different aerodynamic surfaces is creating lift as optimum as possible. Elastic seals are needed to avoid the air to flow by the gaps between the different surfaces that could cause a malfunction of the aerodynamic component or even the complete wing. Commonly the currently used seals are not fulfilling properly this mission, as the current manufacturing process in plastic injection needs very expensive and long delivery time tooling that prevent the introduction of modifications during the development process. So the designed seals cannot be properly optimized during development, and its final performance is far from being perfect.
Development times are also affected, as producing the injection tooling is a highly time consuming process.
In addition, the assembly solution is neither optimum due to the geometrical limitation introduced by the molds used in injection.
Additive manufacturing technologies have clear potential to solve all these issues. Despite the maturity level of specific materials for this manufacturing process, later usage in aircraft sector is very poor today. This project pretends to customize the formulation of existing materials to be processed in an optimum way by additive manufacturing technologies, for the specific purpose of aircraft operation, and with recyclable properties to make a giant step ahead in the optimization of performance of the component.
Additionally, the selected manufacturing process (advanced FDM) will allow the production of multi-material seals, so the best features of current most performant reinforced seals can be reproduced, but allowing a much more complex geometry, no restriction to modification and optimization loops, and with just a fraction of its cost and its delivery time.
Putting everything together, this project will drive to optimize aerodynamic performance, weight, assembly and maintenance, so less fuel consumption and pollution, maintenance costs and waste of material.
Ámbito científico
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringaircraft
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesenvironmental sciencespollution
- natural sciencesmathematicspure mathematicsgeometry
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuels
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringmanufacturing engineeringadditive manufacturing
Programa(s)
Tema(s)
Régimen de financiación
CS2-IA - Innovation actionCoordinador
28027 Madrid
España
Organización definida por ella misma como pequeña y mediana empresa (pyme) en el momento de la firma del acuerdo de subvención.