In this Q&A session, Carmelo Lo Faro, president, Solvay Composite Materials global business unit, discusses with Ed Hill the company’s established involvement in the aerospace sector and expectations for this growing market.
Q) Can you give a general outline of Solvay’s involvement in the aerospace manufacturing market?
We produce an integrated portfolio of products and technologies for aerospace applications, including primary and secondary structures, aircraft interior products and processing materials optimised for complex manufacturing methods. We offer tailored material solutions and have an extensive product portfolio, which we supply to a wide range of aerospace customers.
Our portfolio includes: thermoset and thermoplastic composites; structural adhesives and surfacing films; carbon fibre, for structural and interior applications; ancillaries such as vacuum bagging consumables and carbon fibre tooling and silicone reusable bags.
Q) How has demand in the aerospace market grown over the years for your products?
Since the financial crisis of 2009, aerospace has been one of the few global industries seemingly resilient to economic cycles. This is in part down to globalisation; business is increasingly conducted internationally and so there has been a need for more and more air travel. The demand for fuel-efficient aircraft was the advent of an unprecedented build-up in the civil transport manufacturing backlog. Our business is growing along with this production increase. Another growth market for Solvay is the military market for fixed wing and rotorcraft. Solvay also provides materials to the business jet, regional jet and space/launch markets.
Our scientists and engineers have worked closely with Lockheed Martin and its subcontractors to develop engineered material solutions to meet the F-35 programme's demanding requirements. We are the primary supplier of advanced composite materials for the F-35. While this is an ongoing programme, we continue to refine our products, services and manufacturing processes to suit the evolving needs of the largest military fighter programme in the world.
Q) How collaborative is your relationship with the OEMs and other tiers in the aerospace supply chain?
We collaborate closely with our suppliers to ensure we meet our customers’ needs with a focus on supply security, quality and affordability. We work in collaboration with our suppliers in a range of ways from Joint Development Agreements to strategic supply contracts. Jointly, we address the key elements of a long-term robust supply chain, such as sustainability (Corporate Social Responsibility), capacity, quality and affordability. This close relationship is imperative to successfully meeting our customers’ needs and allowing Solvay to continue to industrialise the use of composites.
We in turn work with OEMs and their tiers to ensure we understand their challenges and develop technologies that fit the requirements of their applications, often through collaboration agreements and joint developments. Building the supply chain is critical at this time where industrialisation is critical - having partners with the right skills, the right approach and the right infrastructure is key to make the industrialisation of composites successful.
Q) As a material supplier, what are you working on to help increase production rates?
Automation is key for the industrialisation of composites manufacturing. By industrialisation we mean moving from the small-scale, more manual, production of composites work to high quality mass output.
Automation is already used extensively in moderate CFRP intensive programmes in the aerospace industry, but if we are to raise current composites manufacturing levels to the high-volume predictions of tomorrow we need to employ the smart use of automation across a broader scope of manufacturing activities. The drive to reduce takt time and the total cost of ownership, both key requirements for large scale industrialisation, will be enabled by the automation of handling, lay-up and inspection processes to name a few.
It’s likely that the automated techniques and the materials will need to evolve to achieve this. Being smarter with automation will require the use of the right robots and end effectors in the right application areas. As a material supplier, we will need to ensure we have the right product forms within our portfolio to enable this. Strong cooperation between machine builders, material suppliers and end users will be critical to facilitating this digital revolution as the needs of high volume manufacturing converges across market spaces.
Solvay’s intention is to demonstrate that the manufacture of composite parts is feasible in high volumes, particularly the volume requirements of the automotive industry. The implementation of automated systems helps to reduce takt times, is extremely accurate and repeatable, and well-suited for the industries in which our materials are supplied.
Robotic systems (and understanding the capabilities of such systems) is fundamental to Solvay when developing tailored products which meet our customer's requirements. The capital expenditure of robotic systems is relatively low, this makes composites more appealing and adoptable for our customers. These systems can be integrated with current infrastructure within most manufacturing facilities. With a relatively low investment and integration with current infrastructure, industrialisation of composite part manufacturing for high volumes is now possible.
Q) Are there new materials and compositions, such as graphene that can reduce weight even further for aerospace applications?
Carbon fibre will continue to be the primary material for lightweighting in the aerospace industry. It has the proven performance track record, supply scale and economics that OEMs are looking for. However, new materials, such as graphene, etc. have opportunities in aerospace composites as additives or complementary materials that increase or incorporate functionality for the end user. Allowing the composite to do more than just carry the loads of the structure in turn reduces both weight and cost through the elimination of parasitic weight and the applicable manufacturing steps.
Q) Can additive manufacturing processes be easily applied when using composite materials for aerospace uses?
With polymers, the aerospace industry is only touching the surface of what can be achieved by additive manufacturing. A good way of looking at it currently is that a lot of people view it as more of a ‘nice to have novelty’ rather than a fundamental part of the design process.
As airlines search for differentiation through design and customer experience and the performance and knowledge of the additive manufacturing technologies evolve, additive manufacturing will become the enabling technology that really allows designers to develop completely ground-breaking new conceptions.
Q) What do you think will be the next major development in aircraft that your products can help: electrification, power units, unmanned aircraft?
There is a trend towards architecture changes. OEMs are starting to look at pushing design boundaries further and using more biomimetic influenced design. There are so many ingenious designs throughout nature that could be mimicked. Composites offer a design freedom that no other material can offer, making composites critical in enabling biomimetic designs. Multifunctionality is another trend where composites will be used as they enable the creation of intelligent structures while keeping the weight down.
We’re seeing a lot more interest in, and developments around, electrification. Composites will be critical in enabling electric planes to fly, offering the required lightweighting.
What was once exclusively the domain of independent start-ups and small firms, electric vehicles have recently seen the bigger companies also take an interest. For example, Boeing is backing a start-up planning to develop electric jets, which is targeting a 2022 lift off.
