INNOTOOL 4.0 have received funding from CLEANSKY 2 initiative for the development and implementation of an innovative efficient RTM tool
The technical feasibility of composite materials in critical landing gear structures has been proven during the last decade.
Nevertheless, the next challenge is currently to achieve not only higher weight and cost efficiency but also larger sizes.
Since the use of high-pressure resin injection manufacturing technologies, such as resin transfer molding (RTM), is key to achieve the required quality and affordability, larger component sizes also result in larger and heavier tools.
Large tools could become bottlenecks in the manufacturing chain, due to their high weight which results in handling and cleaning difficulties, high energy consumption (for both heating and cooling) and expensive equipment setups.
The relatively low manufacturing rates and the higher safety requirements of aerospace products make the investment in equipment less affordable.
Therefore, RTM tooling for large products requires investigation in other technologies, to be effective and affordable
The benefit of society can be represented in two ways:
A landing gear lighter than the current ones leads the aircraft to be more efficient to consume less fuel and so to generate less CO2
As well, in the same sense, more energy-efficient processes improve the carbon footprint of the manufacturing process
For those reasons, the project objective was to develop robustly, wear-resistant, as lightweight as possible, low-cost tooling with an integrated dynamic controlled electric heating system, that is suitable for high-pressure resin injection processes and complex shaped products.
The innovative tool has been achieved, together with the first steps of the intelligent RTM process.
INNOTOOL 4.0 has fully achieved the proposed target of the lighter tool, more efficient, with energy savings of about 30%.
