Smart answers to market demand: systems and equipment must increase their intrinsic performance to meet new aircraft needs without a corresponding increase in weight and volume: kW/kg, flux/dm3 are key indicators of systems innovation: The SealedwithoUTaKiss solution will directly answer market needs, as adhesively bonded structures allowing high reliability will offer an alternative to bolts and rivets in aircraft structures thus, will significantly reduce weight and ultimately fuel of aircraft resulting in meeting future needs of economical and efficient aircraft operations. Reduction of weight due to use of fewer rivets and bolts and more adhesively bonded material will allow improvement in flight operation due to a lightweight structure, higher performance, better maintenance and high efficiency. For sales development a fundamental parameter is that the MROs will have to address this growing market challenge through enlarging their capability in repair of composite materials. Composite repair has developed during last twenty years on aircraft having up to 20 % of composite structure only and not on primary structural parts. Today, the B787 is already fully operational while the A350 will be soon in the hangars of customers. These aircraft have more than 55 % of composite structures, considering that even their fuselage is in composites, which means that a much greater number of composite repair requirements will be expected. But the B787 and the A350 are not the only ones. A new era opens for Advanced Composite Structure Repair in Workshop as well as in Flight Line (repairs on the aircraft itself between two flights), that will necessitate new technologies and training services, so that the technical services will be in position to face the new challenges dealing with the damages in complex structures, potentially including “kissing bonds”. Engineers and technicians responsible for such operations are conscious that up to now their teams have been practicing on simple secondary structures. How to reliably and efficiently detect “kissing bonds” and then repair complex structures like a panel of a fuselage, a new radome, very large areas on an engine internal part appear challenging. Reviewing the above mentioned data, it can be confirmed that the innovative technology and methodology developed within SealedwithoUTaKiss are absolutely relevant from a commercial point of view and present a much better cost vs. performance ratio (value for money) compared to state-of-the-art and competitive approaches/products. This gives to SealedwithoUTaKiss Partners a 2-3 years advance compared to competition, should any similar products be developed. Manufacturers and repair centres using innovative GMI solutions will be provided with a very important advantage compared to competition, in terms of range of available solutions, cost efficiency and performance. In a similar manner, TWI and BRU will be able to innovative NDT propose services mainly to the aeronautical industry concerning the detection of kissing bonds. Such services would not only include performance of tests for third parties, but also training and consulting activities, thus maximizing the impact of the project for both entities.
