Hexcel is exhibiting at the Farnborough Airshow, July 17-23rd (Hall 4 Stand A10); having recently announced that it is investing $100 million to increase the company’s global carbon fibre production by about 50%.  The expansion project is proceeding to plan, with the initial 25% increase in capacity due to be commissioned at the end of this year and the remaining 25% due in October 2008.  The company is also investing $20 million in new state of the art equipment for prepreg production in the UK, Spain, Germany and France, to meet the growing demands of the aerospace industry.
At Farnborough Hexcel will promote the company’s latest composite technologies and further reinforce its commitment to aerospace customers.
New Technologies
HexTOOL™ is Hexcel’s new patent pending composite tooling material that enables machineable composite moulds to be produced for the first time.  This new concept for lightweight, efficient large-scale tools is cost-effective compared with conventional composite tools and metal moulds, including INVAR.  HexTOOL uses Hexcel’s established HexMC® technology, a compression moulding material consisting of chopped unidirectional prepreg tape.  The lay-up of the tooling involves minimal labour and time (i.e. no debulking) on a master mould that does not have to be dimensionally accurate.  The “as cured” tool is then machined to final desired shape.
The resulting tooling has a Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE) that matches that of carbon/epoxy structural parts.  It is also lighter and has faster heatup and cooldown rates than metal tooling.  HexTOOL™ enables moulds to be produced with complex shapes and within tight tolerances (+/- 0.125 mm).  The moulds are easy to repair and surface dimensions can be adapted, for example to meet engineering changes.

The launch product is made from high strength carbon fibre and HexPly® M61 BMI resin, which is a very tough, high temperature system, providing better resistance to degradation (micro-cracking) than epoxies when submitted to thermo-cycling.  Tests have demonstrated that it survives at least 500 autoclave cure cycles at temperatures approaching 200 C/400 F.

Hexcel’s latest honeycomb innovation for the aerospace industry is HexWeb® HRH-36 Flexcore®.  This new honeycomb combines Hexcel’s unique flexible cell geometry with the latest high performance core material.  Constructed from Kevlar® (DuPont trademark) paper and reinforced with a high temperature resistant phenolic resin, HexWeb® HRH-36 Flexcore® provides strength retention at up to 175°C/350°F and retains its mechanical properties in a curved condition.  HexWeb® HRH-36 Flexcore® also provides higher shear strengths than comparable hexagonal cores of equivalent density and can therefore give valuable weight savings for an equivalent performance.  The honeycomb is unmatched in its ability to be formed into compound curvatures.  Cost-savings can result from the reduced scrap and labour costs when using regular hexagonal cell core.  Some parts that could not previously be made with honeycomb can now benefit from a sandwich construction.  Typical applications are radomes, ducts, leading edges of wings and stabilisers.

Hexcel has developed a new generation aircraft floor panel that employs a combination of Hexcel’s fibre, resin and core technology expertise.  Fibrelam® 2200 is an ultralight panel, providing 20% weight savings over traditional aircraft flooring panels.  Yet the lightness has been achieved with no loss of strength or stiffness.  The panel, which has carbon fibre skins and HexWeb® HRH-36 core, provides very high performance and is designed for use throughout large transport aircraft, where weight savings are crucial.

HexMC® is a new kind of cost-effective carbon fibre epoxy moulding concept enabling detailed 3-D shapes, that can’t easily be made from high performance composites, to be manufactured in series production.  The properties obtained are close to those found in quasi-isotropic laminates produced using the same fibres and resins as used in HexMC.

Hexcel is now able to mass produce small 3-D components for customers using HexMC technology.  HexMC offers a similar weight saving against metal as carbon/epoxy prepreg, but is designed for economical production of complex shapes that are typically machined, cast or forged out of metals.  Typical aerospace applications are window frames, seat pedestals, fittings, frame gussets, flange supports and covers.

Display Parts
At Farnborough Hexcel will be displaying a number of composite parts on the stand that have been manufactured by customers.  These include the Airbus A380 Fixed leading Edge Lower Panel (FLELP) – Inner Panel 5 – that is manufactured by CTRM Aero Composites Sdn. Bhd. for Airbus UK.  The FLELP is made with Hexcel’s HexPly® 8552 prepreg, Magnamite® AS4 carbon fibre, Redux ® 319A film adhesive and HexWeb® HRH-36 honeycomb.  Since 2005 Hexcel has been the major supplier of composite materials for all CTRM AC  manufacturing programmes carried out at its facilities in Melaka (Malaysia).  A whole range of Hexcel products, including prepreg, adhesives, honeycombs and special process honeycomb parts are used by CTRM AC to fabricate parts for Airbus and other programmes.
Saab has been a major customer of Hexcel composite materials for over 25 years and Saab Aerostructures has kindly loaned Hexcel a Gripen Canard Wing to display on the Farnborough stand.  The part is manufactured with HexPly® 6376 carbon fibre prepreg and HexWeb® 5056 and 5052 CR-PAA honeycombs.

Other exhibits on the Hexcel stand include a HexTOOL mould tool for an aircraft door; an aircraft seat pedestal in HexMC; TowFlex thermoplastic laminate demonstrator parts; and a preform for an aircraft fuselage frame together with the resin-injected part.

Ends
Background

Hexcel Corporation is a leading advanced structural materials company.  It develops, manufactures and markets lightweight, high-performance reinforcement products, composite materials and composite structures for use in commercial aerospace, space and defense, electronics, and industrial applications.

Hexcel is the largest US producer of carbon fibre, the leading weaver of structural fabrics and a major supplier of composite materials.  Hexcel fibres, fabrics, resins, prepregs, honeycombs and adhesives are widely used in the aerospace industry.  Regional jets, helicopters, aircraft engines and satellites are also major users of Hexcel materials.

With headquarters in Stamford (CT), USA, Hexcel is a global company, manufacturing in USA and Europe, with Joint Ventures in the Asia Pacific region and sales offices worldwide. 

UK Contact:  Rachel Woolerton
Tel: +44 (0)1223 838370
Rachel.Woolerton@hexcel.com