Over the past 15 years, the JEC Innovation Awards have brought in 1,800 companies worldwide. 177 companies and 433 partners have been rewarded for the excellence of their composite innovations. The JEC Innovation Awards reward composites champions, based on criteria such as partner involvement in the value chain, technicality or commercial applications of innovations.

In 2019, 30 finalists have been selected by an international jury of experts from more than a hundred applications. They compete in 10 categories, among which the new 3D printing one.

“The JEC Innovation Awards programme is emblematic and recognises pioneers in composite innovation. 3D printing plays a new role in our industry. The combination of lightweight, resistant materials that allow great design freedom, with a technology that allows complex shapes, is of interest to manufacturers. Many manufacturers have started using it to print automotive parts, aircraft parts, or building walls,” stated Franck Glowacz, Innovation Content Leader at JEC Group. “Due to the very high level of the nominees, the JEC Innovation Awards ceremony should be very rich!”

A prestigious international jury comprises: Anurag Bansal, Manager Global Business Development, Acciona Infraestructuras; Christophe Binetruy, Professor, EC Nantes; Robert Buchinger, CEO, Sunlumo Technology; Grahame Burrow, Global President, Magna Exteriors; Dominique Dubois, CEO, Carboman Group; Karl-Heinz Fueller, Manager Hybrid Materials, Concepts and AMG, Daimler; Sung HA, Professor, Hanyang University; Murat Oguz Arcan, COO, Composites, Construction and Business Development, Kordsa; Henri Shin, Director – R&D Composites Innovation Center, Kolon; Kiyoshi Uzawa, Professor/Director (Ph.D), Innovative Composite Center.

The JEC Innovation Awards ceremony will take place on Wednesday 13 March at 4.30pm at the Agora stage of the JEC World 2019 exhibition.

Aerospace – Application: Composite Aileron Structure Cured in One Step

Nominated for a JEC Innovation Award: Compo Tech Plus SPOL (Czech Republic). Associated partner: Aero Vodochody Aerospace (Czech Republic)

Aileron structure for a span-wise box section connected by a robot-wound fibre layer with one-step curing. Process: automated production with no sandwich core structure or secondary bonding.

The innovation is an application process for robot-assisted filament winding and laying for the automated production of wing structures. The process involves the winding, with axial fibres, of various shaped sections that form the span-wise box beams. The box beams together form the profile of the wing section.

Before curing, the outer layers are wound with the tooling still in place, thus consolidating the internal beams and forming the shape of the aileron. The outer surface is then pressed using a flexible vacuum mould at room temperature and the part is cured in a single step, without any secondary bonded parts. The surface is then finished.

Aerospace – Application: Primary Structure for Sounding Rockets

Nominated for a JEC Innovation Award: Deutsches Zentrum für Luft – und Raumfahrt EV (Germany). Associated partner: AFPT (Germany)

A thermoplastic composite component replacing a purely metal primary structure and allowing weight reduction through tailored thermomechanical properties.

An automated fibre placement (AFP) process with carbon fibre-reinforced thermoplastic (CF-PEEK) tapes was used to manufacture a primary structure for sounding rocket missions. This part replaces a traditionally metallic component, thus contributing to an increased use of composites in space applications. Unlike other AFP processes using thermoplastic materials, no post-consolidation process was required to ensure structural integrity.

This single-step (in-situ) manufacturing method has long been a target in the thermoplastic community, eliminating expensive and time-consuming vacuum-bagging processes. The method used to produce this component also displays a significant advantage over winding processes, where roving intersections lead to fibre undulations and hence decreased stiffness and strength. Instead, excellent geometrical tolerances and inter-ply consolidation quality were achieved.

This was verified by ultrasound, X-ray, and infrared thermography non-destructive testing. Operational loads are transferred to the structure via HI-LOK screw rivets, with qualification testing under compression, bending, and shear conditions having been successfully completed in 2018. With its imminent launch date as part of the DLR ATEK mission (VSB-30), this component has successfully cemented its place in history as one of, if not the first, in-situ AFP-produced components to complete a major role in real flight.

Aerospace – Application: Injection Forming of Gears on CF-PAEK Drive Shafts

Nominated for a JEC Innovation Award: Herone (Germany). Associated partners: TU Dresden (Germany), Victrex Europa (Germany)

Injection forming of CF-PAEK composite profiles with CF-PEEK – a smart progression of the overmoulding technology to reach the next-level of connection strength for integral composite profiles.

The all-thermoplastic geared CF-PAEK drive shaft system (e.g. for door closing mechanisms in an aeroplane) is the proof of concept for functionalising CF-PAEK hollow profiles with CF-PEEK using the injection forming technology invented by Herone. In the first process step, thermoplastic UD tapes are braided to load adapted tape preforms, called organoTubes. By using fully-consolidated thermoplastic UD tapes, the challenging and time-consuming fibre impregnation step is already completed prior to preforming.

This significantly increases the process efficiency and guarantees the highest quality for the shaft body. Furthermore, braiding enables high deposition rates and thus makes the process suitable for large-scale industrial production. The CF-PAEK organoTubes are then moulded to consolidated drive shaft bodies using Herone’s unique moulding technology. In the second step, the gears are injection formed onto the consolidated drive shaft body. Utilising the heat and pressure of the injection compound, the drive shaft is thermoformed to create a form-locking connection between the composite shaft body and the injection-moulded gear.

Thereby, the cohesive bond between the composite body and the gear is strengthened by additional form locking. The drive shaft is made from Victrex UD slit tape based on the new PAEK polymer, VICTREX AE 250, with a melting temperature around 40 K lower than conventional PEEK. The gear is made from Victrex’s short carbon fibre-reinforced PEEK 90HMF40. Selecting a material with a 40 K difference in the melting temperatures obliterates the need to pre-heat the shaft above its melting temperature prior to injection forming. This improves resource efficiency, process reliability and interface strength tremendously.

Aerospace – Process: A+ Glide Forming: Automated Manufacturing Process

Nominated for a JEC Innovation Award: Applus+ Laboratories (Spain)

A+ Glide Forming is a new continuous process used to form CFRP stringers with complex contours in only one shot. This is a versatile, high-productivity and low-investment forming solution.

New composite aircraft structures are made out of panels reinforced with stringers, either frames or ribs. Typical fuselage stringers are omega sections, while T stringers tend to be used in the wings. Stringers are usually long, narrow parts. Fuselage stringers can be 4 to 12m in length, and wing stringers up to 40m in a large aircraft.

The A+ Glide Forming technology was developed to form long and curved stringers from flat, full-thickness prepreg lay-ups made on Automated Tape Lay-up (ATL) or Advanced Fibre Placement (AFP) machines. This innovative technology can be used to form curved stringers with different sections, lengths, thicknesses and curvatures using a single machine that accepts different tools.

Aerospace – Process: Fully-FST Compliant 16g Composite Aero Seatback

Nominated for a JEC Innovation Award: Cecence (UK)

Associated partners: Acro Aircraft Seating (UK), FTI (UK)

Rapid hot compression moulded, fully composite 16g carbon seatback with FST compliance built in to its core, negating the need for fire proof dressing and with an out of mould paint ready surface.

Cecence proved it was possible to manufacture a fully compliant lightweight carbon composite seat back using hot compression moulding, that could pass FST requirements and achieve 16g HIC. This seat back is an integral part of Acro’s Airbus line fit approved seat and is now in-service. The aircraft operator has a product that is aesthetically pleasing with a smooth finish and which achieves the weight target.

The material allowed Acro’s design engineers to create shapes that would not have been possible in metal and to make space savings on the aircraft to allow for increased passenger comfort.

The technological breakthrough of the innovation is both in the rapid manufacturing process and the resulting seat back where the FST compliance is built into the structural component and is not reliant on additional dressing to act as a fire barrier.

Cecence invested heavily in early stage R&D, designing and engineering a structural material that would be FST compliant, easy to work with, fast to process, with an excellent surface finish. They worked closely with prepreg manufacturer FTI to combine Cecence’s carbon fibre selection and orientation with a work place friendly 0% formaldehyde phenolic resin system.

Aerospace – Process: Zero-Defect Manufacturing Process

Nominated for a JEC Innovation Award: Profactor (Austria)

Associated partners: Airbus Defence and Space (Germany), Danobat (Spain), Dassault Systemes (France), FIDAMC- Fundación para la Investigación, Desarrollo y Aplicación de Materiales Compuestos (Spain), IDEKO S. COOP (Spain), InFactory Solutions (Germany), MTorres Diseños Industriales (Spain), Profactor (Austria)

The development is a zero-defect manufacturing process for large composite parts. It uses inline monitoring and decision support systems to avoid defects showing up only during final NDT.

At the heart of the zero-defect manufacturing process are the automated dry fibre placement (DFP) and automated dry material placement (ADMP) lay-up processes and the subsequent infusion and curing processes.

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