The seal of approval

Although the aerospace industry contains a range of unique challenges, Martins Rubber says it's well placed to meet the industry's demands for a multitude of precision sealing solutions.


The rate of change in the aerospace industry is beginning to accelerate as end users constantly seek to extract enhanced economic performance from the aircraft they buy. This in turn offers a gain in competitive advantage that can be used to win passenger market share.

This ever-changing environment is an opportunity for innovative companies to contribute added value to the industry by bringing to bear their experiences in technology transfer across industries and products and the rapid response to project deadlines made possible by being able to quickly assemble dedicated teams with scope to access all levels of both the supply chain and in-house manufacturing resources.

These methods and processes have been fine-tuned in the highly competitive and deadline driven field of Formula One and it's often a surprise to aerospace companies to discover just how rapidly projects can be delivered.

Many challenges coming through the aerospace market include the need to provide sealing solutions which will withstand increasingly high temperatures. As technology evolves, customers increasingly want to use elastomeric products towards the rear of the engine, and they often struggle to source equivalent solutions to mil-spec materials and old style products which are obsolete due to original sources disappearing. Martins Rubber offers bespoke solutions and in-house R&D and can test and develop a replacement material to provide a solution from a sample or drawing.

A technical evolution which has recently taken place via the motorsport industry, but has subsequently caused a stir within the company's aerospace customers, is the ability to bond silicone rubber to carbon fibre to produce one-piece brackets and cable guides to offer a lightweight design with a lower part count. This novel approach is finding many potential applications in reducing the overall weight of engine and airframe packages and as such, provides the kind of competitive advantage that tier one manufacturers are looking for.

A similar development of interest is a dual hardness moulding technique which the company has also developed, allowing a stiff elastomer to grip a mounting flange, with a softer material capped on top to provide a compliant seal.

Martins Rubber says it has seen recent demand from ‘future engineering' departments for new elastomers, which it is in the process of developing, such as Nano PTFE filled fluorocarbons to reduce friction on seals, improved heat transfer properties in hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber (HNBR) to improve cooling, and self-damped silicone materials to confer anti-vibration properties to components.

And when it comes to maintaining its ‘green' aerospace elastomer credentials, Martins Rubber says it is focused on creating designs which help reduce weight, part count and increase service intervals to reduce the footprint of the equipment being flown. The company has also been instrumental in delivering new technologies to recover used tyre rubber back into useable new material with the recent Technology Strategy Board funded Devulc02 programme.

Alongside the obvious developments, such as the continuing push for products to perform in harsher environments and at higher temperatures, the more basic needs appear to be coming full circle, with customers wanting to source products from the UK rather than from overseas OEM suppliers, and also to find bespoke solutions rather than having to fabricate a solution from a standard product.

There are exciting projects in the pipeline with possibilities opening up to use elastomers in previously inhospitable aero-engine environments, such as temperature ranges in excess of 300°C, which will help widen the scope for creating innovative solutions. Martins Rubber says it will be at the forefront in the development of these technologies.

www.martins-rubber.co.uk

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