Making material gains

CiMAugust20Features - toray1
CiMAugust20Features - toray1

Toray Advanced Composites is one of the market leaders in the supply of prepreg materials. In this Q&A session, the company discusses its prepreg tooling products and the use of its materials in the space industry.

Toray Advanced Composites is one of the market leaders in the supply of prepreg materials. In this Q&A session, the company discusses its prepreg tooling products and the use of its materials in the space industry.

 

With its production of unidirectional tapes and woven-based prepreg composite materials, Toray’s European Centre of Excellence for thermoset prepreg systems facility at Langley Mill, Nottingham houses a carbon-free manufacturing line dedicated to the manufacture of electrically-pure materials for the aerospace and defence sectors. The company is engaged in interesting projects across aerospace and the growing space segment, some of which are a result of its transfer of composite material technology from our US site to the Langley Mill site.

Q) Toray Advanced Composites’ thermosets product manager, Jed Illsley begins by providing an update on the company’s latest prepreg tooling products.

We continue to work hand in hand with our innovative customer base and we’re currently developing tooling products that will maintain our excellent quality reputation, whilst delivering faster simpler deposition/lamination methods. For example, our Rapi-ply HXR56 reduces the lamination time in specific mould types. We’ve also recently completed the setup of our US distribution centre in Michigan, where our tooling products can serve the US market with fast service times, especially critical for motorsport.

Q) What is driving the latest design initiatives, i.e. part manufacturability, production rates, consistent part quality and automated processes to eliminate manual labour?

Toray’s thermosets product manager, Jed Illsley

Reducing design to prototype time, then making the step towards limited production runs has always been a key target area for composite tooling. In higher volume large tool applications, process efficiency becomes increasingly important. Low mass composite tooling can address these points allowing more dynamic processing. For example, reducing autoclave/oven energy consumption, or allowing easier operation in ATP operations, which require large moulds to be moved in different axes to present to application heads.

Q) When it comes to tool medium selection, what are the cost drivers and material performance figures in comparing typical applications and material availability?

Initial outlay against tool life costs are always key. These actual figures are always open to interpretation and depend on many different factors. However, there is no doubt the quality of the tool based on surface finish and vacuum integrity and in-use maintenance are key factors when offered against the actual moulding environment, which will depend on the prepreg material used and the environmental conditions required to cure the part. The Toray AmberTool series of tooling prepreg products will deliver optimum performance if processed under the conditions recommend by us.

Q) What are the key points in pattern design, including master/pattern geometry/design?

How the final part is to be moulded is a crucial design loop to consider at the first stage. Mould split lines, draw angles, datum points, moulding flanges, fixings and stiffening rib structures all need to be considered. Initial dimension considerations will all depend on master substrate, tooling prepreg used and the process conditions required to produce the mould.

Q) Please give me a feel for AmberTool’s current industry applications?

Toray produces unidirectional tapes and woven-based prepreg composite materials

The AmberTool range has been active across most composite markets for over 30 years, with its HX42 system in the early 1990s initially marketed first in motor racing applications. The system developed into its current aerospace specified format from 2000 onwards, and is utilised across applications ranging from aerostructures, aircraft interiors to space. Meanwhile, the HX50 and HX56 systems were developed specifically for the fast turn-around automotive market. HX56 remains our prime matrix in this sector due to its superior handleability and surface finish.

Q) What are the key design requirements for a composite tool?

The key purpose of any mould tool is to provide a means of moulding the required component material substrate to the required quality for the project duration, or the expected life of the mould. Any tooling medium that allows you to do this is worth consideration. So, how do you make the mould tool material selection?

Some key points to consider: time to produce the mould; mould tool size; shape complexity; expected number of parts to be moulded; curing environment of component material; whether the mould to be produced in-house, and what facilities and skills are available; moulding accuracy requirement; moulding surface requirement.

Q) Is there an issue that prepreg material supplied into the aerospace sector is ‘over-specified’ and therefore too expensive for use on ‘basic’ family car manufacture?

The advancement of composite material technology in the aerospace industry is well established and continues to drive high performance composite development, but we are also seeing lots of exciting innovations across industrial markets. There are many constituent parts to material adoption, including design and processability. It’s down to material providers such as ourselves, working together with the supply chain to deliver material solutions that are suitable for the individual market requirements from both cost, performance and processability perspectives. From a tooling perspective, the physical requirement to place a prepreg material into a mould - even though this can increasingly be automated - can give the designer some difficult hurdles in production.

Q) What are the challenges in supplying material goods to the US and European markets?

With manufacturing sites in both the US and Europe, we have much experience in working in this field and some very successful cross-continent business. The key is to be prepared to put the investment in and expect it to take longer than you think to gain access to new markets. We’ve also recently established a distribution centre in the US for our AmberTool tooling prepregs, manufactured in our UK site and supported by our US colleagues.

Q) TenCate was previously an independent supplier to the UK industry. What’s it like now being owned by a large corporate organisation like Toray?

We’ve now been part of the Toray family for two years, and continue to go from strength to strength. Of course, there is always a period of adjustment with any acquisition, but being vertically integrated into the supply chain offers a unique opportunity to continue to serve our customers with an even greater customer focus and flexibility.

Q) Claire Baker, Toray’s segment manager for space and communications EMEA, says the company is very busy supplying products into the space sector.

Claire Baker, Toray’s segment manager for space and communications EMEA

Toray Advanced Composites has been established in supply of composite materials to space applications, globally, for over 30 years. We understand the unique demands of the space environment and the space industry. We’ve gathered pace alongside this industry to support impressive growth and unprecedented change. The confidence given by our materials’ long heritage and existing qualifications in aerospace and space qualifications has been crucial to securing launch licences and certification of vehicles for new endeavours. You might not see our name on it, but we’re on almost every new composite development in this industry.

We’ve fast-tracked development of tough epoxies for commercial launch, capable of longer out-times to enable building of huge, out-of-autoclave structures for new large commercial launch vehicles. We’ve slit prepreg tape in applications from cryogenic tanks to substrate panels for solar arrays. Our high temperature systems are replacing metallic parts for 1/3 weight saving and enabling the building of re-entry heat shields. European Space Agency missions, observing our Earth or exploring our solar system and beyond each bring fresh challenges of greater temperature extremes, tighter dimensional stability, or more aggressive environments. We aren’t just excited; we’re very busy supplying this sector with tooling and structural prepregs.

www.toraytac.com

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