Currently, AM composite components are designed using established “rules of thumb” and “trial and error” approaches to minimize effects of process induced distortion. Despite these measures, induced distortion in AM parts is still a major problem which can incur substantial costs both in initial part development and process tuning, and during later assembly of subsystems. The risks related to production time and cost involved with such distortions are one major barrier to manufacturers using weight saving composite parts more often in the design of advanced integrated structures.
The models and methodologies developed within PADICTON will provide a means to accurately and quickly predict induced distortions, and to pro-actively design to minimize their occurrence. This will result in a lower level of risk in designing integrates and complex shaped AM components and reduce the cost of designing and manufacturing optimised polymeric components. A reliable method for accurately predicting and preventing distortion will enable the reduction in design and development cost through reduction of scrapped components and expensive design alteration during prototype based development cycles. This is in line with ‘Flightpath 2050’ goal that “the whole European aviation industry is strongly competitive and has a share of more than 40% of its global market.”
Further reduction in design and development time through will be achieved through the increased use of simulation in the early design phase and reduced need for prototype manufacture and iterative process adjustment. This addresses another objective of ‘Flightpath 2050’ regarding “streamlined systems engineering, design, manufacturing, certification and significantly reduced development costs”.
As a first step, PADICTON will combine and improve the most state-of-the-art models for AM composite distortion prediction. This will result in a significant step forward in understanding and avoidance of AM part distortion, which is critical for the wider adoption of weight saving components in aerospace structures.
The chief ecological impacts derive from the efficiency of the PADICTON system. The developed methodologies will allow scrap reduction by 50 to 80% at due to better product conformity. Except from the financial aspect, this will result in significant positive ecological benefit as the raw materials for AM manufacturing are derived from energy intensive petroleum processing. Polymer based and especially carbon fibre composites are 3-5 times more energy intensive than conventional steel on a weight basis.
Both the aircraft production and airline operation industries are active on the most globalized markets; therefore, the conservation and future expansion of employment will necessitate a highly increased competitiveness. The project results will play a key role in addressing this issue, both by generating added product value for aircraft manufacturers and reduced cost and time investments for production and ground operations. Another important aspect will be the increased safety and eco-friendliness resulting from more reliable components and processes. This is one of the major criteria for the European aerospace industry to belong to the market leaders within this business sector.
