Airbus A350 aircraft Wing composite parts processing process.

F-35 ‘s fuselage is extensively used in composite materials, and the RTM manufacturing process is used in processing.

High performance composite materials have been rapidly applied and developed in military and civil fields for their unique and excellent properties.

Liquid Molding (LCM), as a high-performance, monolithic, low-cost, high-precision Composite manufacturing technology, originated in the last century, the United States implemented Low-cost Composite Materials Program (CAI program).

Today, LCM has been widely used in the aerospace industry. In the LCM process, resin transfer molding RTM and vacuum-assisted resin injection vari are the most widely used, and these two kinds of composite materials have been widely used in American four-generation machines F-22 and F-35.

The slender structures and complex parts of the Airbus A380, such as ribs, beams, fuselage frames, and hanging joints, are manufactured with Low-cost RTM.

As the integral and low-cost manufacturing technology of aerospace composite, the composite LCM technology has become the application and research focus of aerospace composites manufacturing.

Since 2014, the company has carried out an L15 aircraft reducer, front, door, and other components of the LCM application research, with the help of scientific research institutions and material suppliers of technical support, has achieved good results.

Resin Transfer Molding RTM is a low-pressure, airtight container (mold) manufacturing method of composite materials, the first fiber (reinforcement material) is placed in the mold, sealed after the low-pressure injection resin, such as resin reaction, open the mold to complete the product manufacturing.

Resin Transfer Molding RTM process includes vacuum-assisted resin injection, resin transfer molding, vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding, compression RTM, and other links, it provides a simple low-cost way to make continuous fiber-reinforced polymer composites, very suitable for the complex shape of large structural parts, and can produce double-sided smooth, High precision complex components with good surface quality.

Because of the particularity of the process, it is necessary to design the mould, process parameter and process process in the development of the composite RTM component, otherwise, it is easy to produce the defects such as debonding, delamination, inclusion, porosity, and porosity in the manufacture so that the component can not reach its use performance.

How to design the RTM process plan which can meet the requirement of the production process and product quality at low cost and cycle is one of the hot topics in the LCM composites industry.

The traditional method is to evaluate the experience of trial production, improve, not only time-consuming but also difficult to ensure product quality.

In the process design stage, using digital technology to simulate the process, can help to select the best RTM process parameters, select the position of the glue mouth, predict the defects, so as to improve the process design efficiency, mold development efficiency, reduce production costs and improve product quality, Now it has become one of the key technologies to realize the development of advanced aeronautical composite components in aviation manufacturing enterprises.

In order to realize the new product development of the aviation composite component of Hongdu company, the application of RTM process simulation design technology in Enterprise is promoted, and the quality of aerospace composite components is ensured.

The aviation manufacturing Process Simulation Engineering Center (hereinafter referred to as “Engineering Center”) cooperates with external enterprises to set up a project team to carry out the simulation research and application work of the RTM process.

Using the external enterprise’s composite material virtual realization analysis software platform, with the help of flood company new product development demand, carry out the related research work.

At present, the RTM composite process simulation has been successfully applied in the new model development of HONGDU company.

By using the simulation technology, the composite structural parts of the machine around 1.7m and the length of 1.4m variable cross section curved surface beams are developed.

The biggest bright spot of applying this technology is the first time that Hong du company realizes the RTM process design and die design with the help of digital simulation technology, and then completes the product development.

The researcher uses PAM-RTM software to simulate the process of the resin injection scheme, determines the optimum injection process and the forming process parameters for the aerospace composite structure, and uses the Pam-distortion software platform to simulate the solidification deformation of the component.

RTM process simulation can provide key data for process design, these include Mold structure design (injection point setting elements), mold material (metal) selection, resin filling temperature (heating resin to the appropriate filling viscosity), resin injection pressure, resin injection Closing time (fill full time), curing time, Curing temperature.

It can simulate and analyze the defects or quality problems of the existing process, and find out the key error points of the process design.

In order to realize the digital design of RTM composite material and virtual test of composite parts, it is necessary to utilize the digital transmission platform of composite material design/manufacture and the information management mode of process design.

Hongdu Company is committed to the late composite materials RTM process simulation technology application promotion, combined with the information development trend of HONGDU company, developed a suitable for aerospace composite components research and development of the application approach, and set the next step to break through the technical approach:

1, establish the composite materials RTM material performance database, based on the design material selection, obtain the composites RTM material data from the supplier, including the physical properties and chemical properties of the fiber-reinforced material, resin, and the molding resin.

2、through the use of PAM-RTM software calculation and analysis, the establishment of a knowledge database of process simulation, including the expansion of the typical RTM simulation model, product model base, Case model library, analysis model Library, and analysis results Library.

The main purpose is to establish simulation knowledge and improve simulation accuracy.

The establishment based on the simulation analysis process design management, to the process design, the process analysis carries on the data management, realizes the production department to the product process method choice.

With the technical precipitation of scientific research and the development of the Engineering Center for several years, the Hongdu company has the ability of composite RTM technology simulation application.

In order to further accelerate the research and development capability of aerospace composite components and promote the improvement of RTM process design level, the rapid transformation of composite design and manufacturing technology from “experiential” to “scientific” is promoted.

Hongdu is building a more stable composite RTM process simulation software using the environment, the corresponding composite materials RTM process simulation technology application of enterprise standards, embedded in the RTM process design process, effective accumulation and management to form technical application capabilities, To meet the various models of the development of new composite materials RTM parts manufacturing requirements.