Polymer Matrix Composite (PMC) is the material consisting of a polymer (resin) matrix

combined with a fibrous reinforcing dispersed phase. Polymer Matrix Composites are very
popular due to their low cost and simple fabrication methods.
Use of non-reinforced polymers as structure materials is limited by low level of their mechanical
properties: tensile strength of one of the strongest polymers - epoxy resin is 20000 psi (140
MPa). In addition to relatively low strength, polymer materials possess low impact resistance.
Reinforcement of polymers by strong fibrous network permits fabrication of Polymer Matrix
Composites (PMC) characterized by the following properties:

High tensile strength;

High stiffness;

High Fracture Toughness;

Good abrasion resistance;

Good puncture resistance;

Good corrosion resistance;

Low cost.

The main disadvantages of Polymer Matrix Composites (PMC) are:

Low thermal resistance;

High coefficient of thermal expansion.

Two types of polymers are used as matrix materials for fabrication composites: Thermosets
(epoxies, phenolics) and Thermoplastics (Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE), High Density
Polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene, nylon, acrylics).
According to the reinforcement material the following groups of Polymer Matrix Composites
(PMC) are used:

Fiberglasses Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymers;

Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites;

Kevlar (aramid) fiber reinforced polymers.

Reinforcing fibers may be arranged in different forms:

Unidirectional fibers;
Rovings;

Veil mat: thin pile of randomly orientated and looped continuous fibers;

Chopped strands: thin pile of randomly orientated and looped short (3-4 inches) fibers;

Woven fabric.

Properties of Polymer Matrix Composites are determined by:

Properties of the fibers;

Orientation of the fibers;

Concentration of the fibers;

Properties of the matrix.

Properties of Polymer Matrix Composites may be estimated by the Rule of Mixtures.

Polymer Matrix Composites (PMC) are used for manufacturing: secondary load-bearing
aerospace structures, boat bodies, canoes, kayaks, automotive parts, radio controlled vehicles,
sport goods (golf clubs, skis, tennis racquets, fishing rods), bullet-proof vests and other armor
parts, brake and clutch linings.

Applications of pmc
Industry processes
Aerospace products and the processes by which they are made are complex in nature, and
knowledge of the latter is important to an understanding of the industry. A substantial investment
in research, involving specialized personnel and facilities, is critical to the aerospace industry, as
it is to most industries in which development and productivity play highly important roles.
Subsequent product development and the transition of new technologies through design and
testing to production also involve numerous processes and practices, many dependent on
sophisticated equipment and facilities. The absolute size of the products themselves demands
massive structures to house their assembly and, in the case of space launchers, can require the
construction of immense support equipment.

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Investment sources for these processes derive from government financing on a pay-as-needed
basis for military and other national projects or from capital raised by equity financingeither
by public or risk-sharing private investors or by loans from normal venture sources such as banks
and insurance companies. As the cost of large air transports has increased to the hundreds of
millions of dollars, leasing has become an effective conserver of cash flow for airlines, and the
leasing companies have become the source of procurement funds for the contractors. Consistent
with the high level of total funds required and with the risk in cost and market, shared investment
among suppliers and prime contractors over the entire life of a program has become a more
frequent practice as well.

Research
The worlds aerospace industry undertakes research and development alone and in conjunction
with governmental agencies and academia. The ultimate aim of the effort is the creation of flight
vehicles more advanced than their predecessors. Because of the complexityi.e., the systems
natureof the industrys end products, advancements commonly require improvements across
many technological disciplines.

Aerospace research and development comprises three main activities. Basic research involves
investigations that may have no application in existing systems but provide advancement of
knowledge for its potential. Applied research is the investigative effort aimed at direct
applications. Development, by definition, is the use of scientific knowledge directed toward the
production of useful materials, devices, systems or methods, including design and development
of prototypes and processes; it is the translation into hardware and software of the results of
applied research. The primary focus in the aerospace industry is on applied research and
development related to the introduction and improvement of products.
Since applied research is absolutely vital to the competitiveness of the industry, it is often
supported by governments. In the United States, funds are commonly provided by agencies such
as NASA and the military service laboratories that work directly with the countrys industry. In
Europe and the rest of the world, governments most often provide financial support for research
directly to their countries industry. The multinational European Space Agency maintains
ESTEC, the European Space Research and Technology Centre, in Noordwijk, Netherlands.
ESTEC is the technical development interface between European industry and the scientific
community. It oversees the development of spacecraft, and it has its own technological
laboratories and extensive facilities for testing spacecraft and components under simulated
launch and in-space conditions. Britain, Sweden, and France also support notable government
laboratories.
Reducing the weight of aircraft structures has always been a focus of research. In addition to
ongoing research into composite materials, investigation of aluminum-lithium and other alloys
continues to foster advances in metals. Materials research for supersonic and hypersonic vehicles
focuses on both high-temperature polymers and lightweight metals as well as high-temperature
polymer-matrix composites, adhesives, sealants, light alloys, and metal-matrix composites for
structural applications (see materials science: Materials for aerospace).
To improve the all-weather operation of commercial aircraft, enhanced vision systems using
video and infrared cameras or millimetre-wave radar are being pursued. Other areas of research
include fly-by-light techniques that transmit commands through fibre-optic cables rather than
electrically. The demand for longer vehicle lifetimes has made vital the development of
nondestructive evaluation techniques to measure quality states and estimate the remaining
lifetimes of structures.
In the military sector, research studies focus on means to enhance the maneuverability and
survivability of flight vehicles. Combat survivability is defined as the capability of an aircraft to
avoid or withstand a hostile environment, and related research centres on threat warning, signal
jamming, radar deception, reduction of infrared signatures, threat suppression, redundancy and
protection of components, passive and active damage suppression, and shielding.
Since the first spacecraft were launched, the size and weight of satellites and probes have
increased constantly, as have costs. Much of spacecraft research is focused on reversing this
trend by miniaturizing instruments, propulsion systems, power sources, and other components
and developing small spacecraft that can replace larger systems. Important research directions
include vehicle autonomy, microelectronic and microelectromechanical systems, ion engines,

modular architecture and multifunctional systems, and high-efficiency solar arrays that replace
silicon cells with significantly more effective photovoltaic materials such as gallium arsenide.

Product development and testing

Initiation of the product development process differs between the military and commercial
sectors. In the United States the defense services normally provide detailed mission
specifications for desired products, against which contractors submit proposals as part of a
competitive process. Proposals are reviewed, and one or more development contractors are
selected. In some cases contracts are awarded solely for the development of competitive
prototypes. The company or team of companies that develops the winning design then may
receive a full-scale development and production contract.
In the civil aircraft sector, manufacturers conduct detailed market studies to determine the need
for new vehicle designs, then define specifications, announce to potential customers their
intention to develop the new product, and solicit orders. When sufficient firm orders are obtained
from the so-called launching customersthe program is officially initiated. The customers
engineers generally work together with the manufacturers to influence the final design to fit
specific needs.

Design methods
The design cycle of a new flight vehicle has changed radically since the 1980s because of new
methods, tools, and guidelines. Traditionally, the cycle begins with a conceptual design of the
overall product followed by the preliminary design, in which most or all subsystems take shape.
In most, if not all, cases, several iterations must be made before a final design is achieved. Since
not all production issues are generally anticipated by design engineers, substantial design rework
is common. Despite the apparent simplicity of the initial conceptual design phase, 7080 percent
of the aerospace products cost is determined in this stage.
Because reducing costs has become increasingly important, a new design method, concurrent
engineering (CE), has been replacing the traditional cycle. CE simultaneously organizes many
aspects of the design effort under the aegis of special teams of designers, engineers, and
representatives of other relevant activities and processes. The method allows supporting
activities such as stress analysis, aerodynamics, and materials analysis, which ordinarily would
be done sequentially, to be carried out together. A step beyond CE, incorporating production,
quality assurance, procurement, and marketing within the teams, is a method called integrated
product and process development (IPPD). IPPD ensures that the needs of the users and those
who bring the product to the customer through manufacturing and outside procurement are
considered at the beginning of the design/build cycle. In cases in which maintenance plays a
major role in the life cycle of a product, relevant personnel from that segment are also brought
into the teams.
CE and IPPD have resulted in numerous improvements for the industry. They have shortened the
total time required to bring products to market, simplified product structures by reducing parts

counts, lowered product and life-cycle costs, reduced defect rates, increased reliability, and
shortened development cycles. For example, in the development of the 777, Boeing formed 238
design/build teams, which helped to reduce the number of changes necessary after release of
initial designs to less than half of that for earlier models done conventionally.
Traditionally, the design process of defense aerospace systems has been governed by military
specifications and standards, which specify in detail what to build and how to build it. In June
1994 a U.S. Department of Defense memorandum substituted performance specifications
describing system requirements for previously used military specifications. The policy was
intended to reduce costs, shorten acquisition cycles, and allow the use of commercial off-theshelf advanced technologies and hardware. Contractors were thus given more freedoms but were
also required to accept more accountability for the success or failure of their products. Although
European design processes have not yet incorporated this approach, the introduction of
commercial quality standards is being progressively implemented under international
commercial guidelines published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Use of computers
The computer has also fundamentally changed the development process by permitting digital
modeling and simulation as well as computer-aided design in conjunction with computer-aided
manufacturing (CAD/CAM; see computer-aided engineering). In the early design stage of a
flight vehicle, digital computer modeling of prospective designs enables rapid examination of
several candidate configurations and thus replaces a portion of costly wind-tunnel testing.
Modern systems create a three-dimensional modela virtual flight vehiclebased on the data
sets entered. All details, from the airframe to the electric subsystem, are stored in the computer.
This eliminates the requirement for full-size physical models, known as mock-ups, on which the
engineers verify design layouts. Widely used CAD/CAM software packages in the aerospace
industry include CATIA from Dassault Systemes/IBM, Unigraphics from Unigraphics Solutions,
and CADDS and Pro/ENGINEER from Parametric Technology Corporation. Boeing used the
CATIA package to develop the 777, the first aircraft to have been designed completely with
computers without a mock-up.

Wind-tunnel testing
Computer simulation has reduced the amount of wind-tunnel testing necessary, but the latter
remains an important part of the development process in the aerospace industry. During
development of the Boeing 777, for example, some 2,000 hours in the wind tunnel were clocked.
The wind tunnel, which predates powered flight by 32 years, is a test apparatus in which air is
blown over a model in a test section, creating an effect comparable to flight. Some low-speed
tunnels have test sections large enough to accommodate a complete small airplane or a wingnacelle section of a large aircraft. In high-speed tunnels, for which a large amount of energy must
be supplied to provide supersonic velocities, test models are of reduced scalefor research
purposes they are sometimes only centimetres in span or length. Tunnels are classified according
to airflow velocity: subsonic (up to Mach 0.8), transonic (Mach 0.81.2), supersonic (Mach 1.2
6), hypersonic (Mach 612), or hypervelocity (above Mach 12).

Prototype testing and certification

In the prototype construction phase, emphasis shifts to testing. A customary procedure is to build
several test airplanes solely to verify the design. The structural integrity of the aircraft is
determined in static and dynamic tests. Ground testing requires an array of facilities, including
ovens for applying high temperatures to materials, acoustic chambers to permit study of the
effect of high-frequency engine noise on structures, rigs for measuring landing impacts, and
variable-frequency vibrators for investigations of vibration and flutter characteristics of
structures. Test fixtures verify that the ultimate load factor called for in the design has been met
or exceeded; for example, the wings may be loaded until they break. In dynamic or fatigue tests,
the life of the aircraft is simulated in time-lapse fashion. Thus an airplane may go through more
than 100,000 equivalent flight hours before it is taken apart and examined completely in every
detail.
While prototype airframes are being built, tests are also conducted on ancillary equipment.
Because of the broad variety of this equipment, the testing process differs for each system.
Structural and mechanical systems are tested in similar fashion to that described for aircraft
structures, whereas electrical and electronic equipment is exhaustively checked by a battery of
electronic test equipment that is often tailored to the system being examined. As the equipment is
run through its performance cycle, monitors affirm or detect and isolate faults for correction. In
many cases, complete systems are further checked in altitude chambers that simulate operating
environments.
Engines are tested in the propulsion equivalent of the wind tunnel, a test cell capable of
simulating flight conditions. To qualify for installation, a new engine undergoes several hundred
hours of testing that embraces the entire intended range of speed and altitude capacity of the
airplane. In endurance testing, the engine must operate for more than 1,000 hours continuously,
many at maximum thrust. In one unique test, dead birds are thrown into the engine to simulate its
in-flight ingestion of living birds, a hazard that has caused flight failures. Test engines are
heavily instrumented, and the recorded data are transmitted to a computer for processing. After
the test runs, the engines are completely disassembled and inspected.
As a general rule, flight testing of prototype aircraft is conducted over sparsely populated areas
or over water because of the possibility of accident and to allow freedom for maneuvers. Flight
testing is necessary to validate what has only been analysis to this stage, although modern
procedures of computerized design and wind-tunnel testing are so thorough and extensive that
the results of the flight-test phase rarely dictate a major design change. Because simulators allow
test pilots to fly the aircraft well before the first prototype has been built, the behaviour of the
plane tends to conform to specifications and expectations.
Regulations for flight certification largely govern tests for commercial aircraft, and certification
takes approximately one year. Military aircraft flight testing, which includes performance with
many different weapons systems, takes nearly twice that time. For certification, all aircraft must
demonstrate capabilities in numerous performance tests under all anticipated conditionsfor
example, emergency braking, stall trials, loss of engine thrust, and takeoff and landing in
extremely hot, cold, high-altitude, and low-altitude environments.

Once a civil aircraft has demonstrated its airworthiness in the flight certification program, it can
enter regular service. The necessary certificates are issued in the United States by the Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) and in Europe by the Joint Airworthiness Authorities (JAA).
These certifications are required for any aircraft purchased within the United States or Europe,
respectively, and serve throughout the world as the basis for certifying civil aircraft that are to
enter service in those countries. Russia and China have certification processes largely modeled
on American and European standards. Significant aircraft suppliers from Brazil, Japan, and
Indonesia use American and European certification standards.

Spacecraft, launch vehicle, and missile development

The research effort that goes into the development of missiles, launch vehicles, and spacecraft
parallels that of the airplane in the design and ground-test stages but differs for the flight-test
stage. For major launch vehicles and strategic missiles, the absence of a pilot on board, the great
expense of a single launch, and the inability to recover and reuse the test vehicle call for rigorous
test techniques, highly elaborate instrumentation both in the vehicle and on the ground, and
extraordinarily intensive preflight checkout in order to prevent a costly abort.
Unmanned spacecraft are unique in that they rarely undergo prototype test flights; rather, they
are carried into orbit with their full complement of operational instrumentation on tested launch
vehicles. Spacecraft instrumentation sends information about performance and operation back to
the Earth, thereby providing the basis for design refinement in later models of the same family.
The substitute for prototype testing is ground-based simulation, conducted in two types of
simulators: the space simulator, which duplicates all the environmental conditions in which the
spacecraft will operate, and the mission simulator, which permits carrying out the entire range of
maneuvers and system operations that might be performed on an actual flight.

Manufacturing
Historical context
Understanding modern aerospace manufacturing processes requires that they be viewed in the
context of the historical development of vehicle design. The spruce and fir frames of aircraft
through World War I required skilled woodworkers and their equipment, coupled with crafters
often women transferring homemaking skills to the shopwho laced or sewed fabric to the
frames. These skins for the wings and fuselages were painted with acetone-based lacquers or
dopes to tighten and toughen surfaces; thus factories had large brush or spray areas with natural
or induced air circulation to enhance drying and dissipation of fumes. At the same time, with the
exception of the air-cooled engine designs developed by the Wright brothers and sold widely in
Europe, aircraft engine manufacturing was an extension of the production of liquid-cooled
automobile motors. Emphasized were refined machining techniques for the cylinder head fins,
which provided the extensive cooling surfaces needed.
The advent of metal airframes changed both the character of manufacturing processes and the
skills required of production workers. At first, only the wood framework of fuselages was

replaced by tubular aluminum trusses connected with mechanical fasteners or welding; coverings
were still sewn and glued fabric. In the mid 1930s, as thin rolled aluminum alloys became
available, all-metal structures for fuselages and then wings became prevalent. Skilled craftsmen
were required to operate the metalworking machines, and new emphasis was placed on flush
riveting and welding and on hard tooling of fixtures to facilitate alignment and assembly. At the
same time, the forging of landing-gear components and major structural fittings and the forming
of sheet metal grew to resemble processes in the automobile industry. This affinity became
particularly close as all-metal bombers and transports revolutionized manufacturing of all but
small private planes. It was not surprising, therefore, that the mass producers of automobiles and
related equipment became manufacturers of military aircraft during World War II.
After the war, jet propulsion and other technical advances led to further changes in
manufacturing techniques and processes. The economics of high-speed transports resulted in
increases in passenger capacity, which necessitated aircraft much larger than wartime bombers.
This, in turn, required expanded facilities and fixtures such that by the start of the 21st century
initial plant investment for modern airliners had reached as high as $2 billion, even with more
than 50 percent of the work being done by suppliers to the prime contractor. Thus, a community
of structural subassembly contractors building wings, sections of fuselages, and horizontal
surfaces now relieve some of the space and tooling needs of prime contractors such as Boeing in
the United States and Airbus Industrie in Europe. Russian companies, however, still operate in a
more vertically integrated mode, keeping all aspects of component manufacture and assembly
within one organization.
Modern aircraft manufacture has been described as a craft process with a mass production
mentality. With the exception of experimental and very specialized airplanes, this has generally
been true. Large aircraft consist of the assembly of one million to five million separate parts, and
complex spacecraft of several hundred thousand parts. Each different type demands unique skills
and manufacturing methods.
Because of the extensive range of skills and facilities required, no single company builds an
entire flight vehicle. Manufacturing in the aerospace industry crosses nearly all construction
boundariesfor example, conventional machine shops for mechanical components, clean rooms
for electronic parts, and unusually large final-assembly facilities for multi-hundred-ton aircraft,
space vehicles, and missiles. In every developed country of the world, major aerospace
production programs incorporate a complete range of hardware and software from suppliers that
operate as subcontractors to the prime contractor or systems integrator. Subcontracting covers
not only the onboard equipment but also, in most large projects, major elements of the airframe
itself. In Europe, where large developments occur in multinational cooperative efforts, the
distribution of the production is especially broad.

Fabrication processes and materials

Fabrication involves the manufacture of individual components that make up larger assemblies
or end products. This activity encompasses the working of metals and the incorporation of
electrical and electronic devices into processors, circuit boards, and subassemblies for the
components of navigation, communication, and control systems. Most of the basic metal-

fabrication methods have been employed since World War II. Modern differences, such as tighter
metal-cutting tolerances, are related to advances in the capabilities of machines and tools (see
metallurgy: Metalworking). In electronic fabrication, changes have mirrored those of the
semiconductor and computer industries. In past decades, electronic elements having single
functions were linked with wiring to make up the multiple functions necessary for systems. In
modern systems, hundreds of functions are performed by a single microchip or, in conjunction
with microminiaturized elements, by printed circuit boards (see integrated circuit).

Working of materials
Metals are cut, shaped, bored, bent, and formed by tools and machines operated manually or,
increasingly, under the control of computers programmed to guide the necessary operations
consistently and with greater precision than can normally be provided by humans. The parallels
for electrical and electronic fabrication are robotic tools for insertion of components into circuit
boards, wave soldering (an automated process for securing components to circuit boards with a
standing wave of molten solder) for rapid, uniform connections, and photolithography
(photographic transfer of a pattern to a surface for etching) for making circuit boards and
multichip modules.
Materials play an important role not only in the fabrication methods used but also in the safety
measures employed. For example, beryllium, whose combination of light weight, high strength,
and high melting point makes it a valuable structural material, yields dust and chips during
machining. Because exposure to beryllium particles can cause adverse health effects, special care
is required to preclude their contamination of personnel or atmosphere. Polymer-matrix
composites also require special contamination protection because of the toxic character of the
resins involved.
In the production of components that must bear high loads yet be as light as possible, aerospace
fabricators have evolved engineering techniques for modifying the characteristics of a material.
The most notable example is the so-called honeycomb sandwich, which is far lighter than a metal
plate of comparable thickness and has greater resistance to bending. The sandwich consists of a
honeycomb core, composed of rows of hollow hexagonal cells, bonded between extremely thin
metal face sheets. Aluminum is the most extensively used metal in both core and face sheets, but
the technique is applicable to a large variety of metallic and nonmetallic materials. Sandwich
construction is now employed to some degree in almost every type of flight vehicle.
Polymer-matrix composites are valued in the aerospace industry for their stiffness, lightness, and
heat resistance (see materials science: Polymer-matrix composites). They are fabricated materials
in which carbon or hydrocarbon fibres (and sometimes metallic strands, filaments, or particles)
are bonded together by polymer resins in either sheet or fibre-wound form. In the former,
individual sheet elements are layered in metal, wood, or plastic molds and joined with adhesives.
Applications for sheet composites include wing skins and fuselage bulkheads in aircraft and the
underlying support for solar arrays in satellites. In fibre-wound forms, tubular or spherical shapes
are fabricated by winding continuous fibre on a spinning mold (mandrel) with high-speed,
computer-programmed precision, injecting liquid resin as the part is formed, and then curing the

resin. This process is used for forming rocket motor casings; spherical containers for fuels,
lubricants, and gases; and ducts for aircraft environmental systems.

Special requirements of military aircraft

Military aircraft demand lightweight structures to achieve high performance. Moreover, the
materials used must be able to withstand the temperatures created by air friction when the
vehicle is flying at high speeds. These requirements have fostered the use of new metals such as
aluminum-magnesium alloys and titanium, as well as composites and polymers for many
surfacesas much as 35 percent of the structure (see materials science: Materials for aerospace).
The manufacture of these materials and their products has created new challenges. Titanium,
although a relatively brittle material, has high strength-to-weight properties at operating
temperatures as high as 480 C (900 F). Forming it into sheets generally requires heated dies
and specialized machining and grinding. Titanium is therefore usually limited to applications,
such as leading edges for wings and tails and related fittings, where its characteristics excel.
Composites, on the other hand, are increasingly becoming staples of aircraft outer surfaces; thus,
most structure manufacturers incorporate the necessary fabrication technology in their factories.
To achieve required strengths, composite materials must be bonded in either hot- or cold-cure
processes. Bonding is achieved within a vacuum, supplied either within evacuated rubberized
bags or in autoclaves (temperature- and pressure-controlled chambers). Complementing the
fabrication of composite sheets and fibre-wound forms is a comparatively recent method called
pultrusion, which extrudes composite shapes in much the same fashion as molten metals are
forced through a die. Other composite-making techniques incorporate the kind of ultralight
structural practices used with metals and fibreglass, such as sandwich construction.

Engine and avionics manufacture

Although the airframe manufacturers remain the major integrators and sellers of aircraft, costs of
production have shifted increasingly toward the key subsystems of propulsion and avionics and
auxiliary equipment such as landing gear and, in the case of military airplanes, armament.
Typically, for civil transports the costs average 50 percent for structure and integration, 20
percent for engines, and 30 percent for avionics. For military aircraft, the cost of avionics,
including systems associated with self-protection and weapons management, can reach 50
percent, with 20 percent for engines and 30 percent for airframe and integration. In fact, the
classic final assembly and test phases represent a mere 710 percent of the cost of modern fighter
aircraft.
With the exception of lightweight piston engines for private craft, jet engines account for the
largest production lines. The manufacture of jet engines, including turboprops and turboshafts,
requires critical attention to close tolerances, which in turn demands precision forgings, castings,
and machinery from the suppliers of the engine makers. Quality issues clearly drive this
production and have stimulated inspection and alignment methods employing laser
instrumentation and computer techniques that enhance the application of quality-control methods
such as statistical process control.

Avionics production involves not only the precision manufacture of computer processors but also
extra safety and reliability issues. This has resulted in extended test requirements and tightened
limits on performance parameters and has stimulated the development of new processes for
circuit-board assembly.
An increasingly important element of avionics production is the operating software. This is
evidenced by the rise in software cost for U.S. defense programs from $5 billion to $35 billion
between 1985 and 1995. Modern production methods for software employ factory techniques
that translate requirements directly to code through an automated process. These have reduced
the rate of software defects and substantially cut development time. Such gains are particularly
significant in the context of the several million lines of code required by modern fighters and
commercial transports, compared with the 20,000 lines associated with military aircraft of the
1960s.

Satellite, launch vehicle, and missile manufacture

The manufacturing processes for aircraft are largely paralleled in the production of satellites,
their launch vehicles, and missiles. Because minimum weight is critical for all three kinds of
products, the use of composites has grown such that it can include the entire structure for
satellites and smaller missiles. For these vehicles, electronics production plays an increased role
in manufacture, accounting for as much as 70 percent of the total cost. Nevertheless, the small
quantity of satellites necessary, even for large constellations in communications systems, limits
some of the benefits of volume production, such as reduced costs, although this is not necessarily
true of component products that are common to several satellite designsfor example, sensors,
instruments, small rocket motors, and communications equipment.

Assembly methods and facilities

Building of subassemblies
Assembly of aerospace vehicles at the prime contractor or systems integrator begins with the
accumulation of subassemblies. An example of a typical subassembly for a transport aircraft is
the rear fuselage section, which is itself composed of several segments. (These segments are
often built by subcontractors, who in turn deal with their own suppliers of the segments
constituent elements.) The segments are taken to the subassembly area, where teams of workers
fit them into support jigs or fixtures and join them into a unit, within which the interior
equipment is then installed. In similar manner, teams put together other subassemblies such as
the remaining fuselage sections, wing sections, tail sections, and engine nacelles. The various
subassemblies then are taken to the main assembly line, where final integration takes place.
Similarly, spacecraft comprise subassemblies (typically the structural, propulsion, guidance and
control, communication, and payload modules, plus solar arrays when required), each of which is
made up of many components. These modules may be built within the plant of the spacecraft
integrator or by subcontractors, with final assembly and testing being the usual responsibilities
and concentration of the former.

In both aircraft and spacecraft, integration of a subassemblys components is most often effected
in black boxes. In addition to enclosing electronic and electrical subelements, these housings
have connectors that interface with various systems in the vehicles.
The performance of subassemblies as units is verified prior to their integration into final
assemblies. In the case of structural subassemblies, verification usually is confined to load
testing, alignment and assurance of dimensions and tolerances, and electrical conformity checks
for installed cabling. For subassemblies with electrical and electronic, hydraulic, and
mechanically actuated components, extensive tests are usually performed in simulated flight
environments incorporating vacuum, temperature, and vibration excursions. The required time,
test equipment, and related computer software represent a significant portion of the cost of these
elements, some 1025 percent.

Final assembly
The final assembly of complete aircraft usually requires a facility furnished with a network of
overhead rails on which ride heavy-lift cranes capable of moving large portions of vehicles.
Facility size is governed by vehicle dimensions; for example, Boeings plant in Everett,
Washington, is the worlds largest building by volume, containing some 13.4 million cubic
metres (473 million cubic feet) and covering an area of 405,000 square metres (4.4 million
square feet). Airbus Industries Final Assembly Complex Clment Ader, near Toulouse, France,
although smaller, with 5.3 million cubic metres (187 million cubic feet), is Europes largest
industrial building.
Aircraft assembly normally starts with the joining, or mating, of fuselage subassemblies that
have been craned into a supporting jig or fixture. As the vehicle is assembled, it is moved
through a succession of work stations, acquiring additional subassemblies and accumulating its
onboard systems, ducts, control cables, and other interior plumbing. Light- and medium-weight
aircraft may be moved on wheeled fixtures; heavier aircraft are craned. Modern large planes and
spacecraft often are moved via an adaptation of the air-cushion technique. Highly compressed air
is pumped into the assembly fixture supports and escapes downward through holes. The
powerful thrust of the escaping air lifts the entire fixture and vehicle assembly several
millimetres off the floor, enough to permit movement by tractor or human power. Major
assembly steps include the additions of nose and tail sections, wings, engines, and landing gear.
On completion of work at the last station, the airplane is rolled out of the assembly plant to the
flight line for its production flight test, a process that involves a thorough checkout of specified
performance.

Many types of small missiles require no such

elaborate techniques or facilities. Composed basically of a cylindrical shell, a warhead, a
guidance system, and a rocket motor, they are readily assembled in a low-bay plant. Larger
missiles of the ballistic type and space launch vehicles are assembled in high-bay facilities with
their longitudinal axes vertical. In the case of the space shuttle, for example, the mating of the
orbiter with the external tank and solid rocket boosters is conducted with tail down in the 160metre- (525-foot-) high Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Spacecraft are unique among flight vehicles in that their final assembly generally takes place
under clean-room conditions. A typical clean room has an atmosphere-control system that rigidly
regulates temperature and humidity and bars entrance, by means of filters, of all but minuscule
contamination. Walls and ceilings are typically of one-piece plastic, lacking cracks where dust
might collect, and are washed and vacuumed daily. Maintenance of spacecraft or faulty
equipment cannot be done within the room without a subsequent thorough environmental
scrubbing.
Some spacecraft are assembled at successive work stations; others remain in a fixed position
while teams of specialists successively install the myriad onboard systems. Because spacecraft
have no opportunity for flight testing, an intensely detailed acceptance checkout is handled in the
clean room by automatic test equipment. The spacecraft is then encased in a sterile container for
shipment.

Verification
Critical for all aerospace vehicles, once they are assembled, are the methods for ensuring the
quality of the manufacturing and assembly processes. In the case of aircraft this involves
extensive inspections of structural and mechanical items, including functional verification of
equipment such as control surfaces and systems, landing-gear operation, avionics performance,
weapons-systems interfaces, and personnel (crew and passenger) environmental conditioning.
Helicopters, as a special class of aircraft, receive inspections that incorporate verification of rotor
drive systems and associated gear trains.
For spacecraft, even greater emphasis is placed on functional verification including, in most
cases, assurance of the performance of all critical operations in thermal vacuum chambers that
simulate space. In addition, since most of its operations are not modifiable to a significant extent
once a spacecraft is in orbit, those that are automatically programmed or controlled by computers
require highly detailed validation. This is preferably carried out with accurate simulations, if not
actual use, of the communication and command links that will be used during the space mission.
Launch vehicles are verified in somewhat similar fashion. They are tested fully assembled, most
often at the launch pad or in a proximate assembly facility where the final elements, including
upper-stage rockets and payloads, are installed. The size of most launch vehicles precludes
environmental testing at the fully assembled level; rather they are given such testing at the
highest possible levels of subassembly. Missiles often follow the spacecraft mode, with emphasis
on alignments and testing of sensors and target seekers or other guidance systems being
paramount, since they are often adjusted just prior to flight.

Lean manufacturing
Consistent with improving the economics of aerospace vehicles is the transition to a new
paradigm for the entire industry, from concept development to operations. This approach
involves all processes pertaining to the acquisition, design, development, and manufacturing of a
product or system and has been variously called lean, agile, or synchronous
manufacturing. It strives to eliminate non-value-added or wasteful resources, including material,
space, tooling, and labour. It applies such principles as waste minimization, flexibility, and
responsiveness to change; these are supported by efforts to optimize the flow of material and
information and to achieve superior quality in order to eliminate scrap and rework.
Lean manufacturing was derived from studies of the automobile industry, which showed that the
best Japanese carmakers had achieved competitive advantages by using practices rooted in the
principles noted. For the aerospace industry, its implementation involves major cultural changes
emphasizing integrated teams of workers having decision-making responsibility at levels closest
to where work is performed, in contrast to the conventional system in which responsibility is
transferred upward through multiple layers of management. It is estimated that full
implementation of this paradigm can reduce costs and product cycle times by 50 percent.

In 1992 the U.S. Air Force funded a study to evaluate the applicability of lean manufacturing to
aerospace products. From that effort was established the Lean Aerospace Initiative, a consortium
of 20 companies and several government agencies. With federal funding, the participating firms
undertook pilot programs, some of which led to the incorporation of commercial lean
manufacturing practices in the manufacture of defense products. Although these changes have
produced major benefits in local stages of production, their translation to entire product
enterprises has been slow. Part of the reason is that a complete enterprise comprises not only
design and production but also the overhead functions of administration and support as well as
customers and suppliers. Nevertheless, progress was being made with the expansion of lean
initiative programs to these elements.

Maintenance
The maintenance support provided by aerospace-industry firms is applied primarily to corporate,
commercial, and military aircraft. Light-plane maintenance is generally handled by local fixedbase operators, which are not considered part of the aerospace industrial complex. Launch
vehicles and unmanned spacecraft, although maintained throughout their prelaunch life by
constant checking and correction, are single-use systems. For manned spacecraft the paramount
concern is crew safety. The space shuttle, for example, is thoroughly overhauled by NASA and
contractor personnel after every flight. Small military missiles are maintained in the field by
specialists in their operating units. Ballistic missiles similarly undergo routine maintenance at
their field installations, but certain types of work, for example, realignment of structure and
sensors, require return of the missile to the originating plant.

Routine maintenance of
aircraft is normally carried out by the civil or military operator. It includes frequent inspections,
either after every flight or a designated series of flights or after a time interval, and minor
maintenance such as replacement of a part or repair of a faulty item of equipment. This type of
maintenance can be handled at most airline terminals and military bases. Major maintenance
work involves complete rework of an airplane or engine that has had considerable service time.
Larger airlines have their own extensive technical facilities for major overhaul, and major
military air forces are similarly equipped. Usually these facilities specialize in servicing specific
models to achieve a high degree of proficiency and efficiency. Despite their competition in the
air, smaller airlines often cooperate on the ground and contract for the technical services of other

carriers to do their maintenance work. Some manufacturers offer maintenance service through
subsidiaries that specialize in this business. The costs involved in the maintenance of aerospace
systems are substantial. For example, over the lifetime of a normal jet engine, an operator will
spend about two to three times its original acquisition cost on maintenance.
The role of the actual manufacturer in the maintenance of its products is principally that of a
supplier of parts, documentation, and advice. Provision of spare parts is a particularly important
source of revenue for the original equipment manufacturers. Boeing, for example, sends out
some 650,000 spare parts per year to about 400 airlines. The firms key spare-parts centre holds
410,000 different parts50,000,000 items altogetherand operates 24 hours a day. The
supplying of documentation in electronic form is now a routine feature. Documentation for the
Airbus A320 jetliner, which originally involved 60,000 text pages, 16,000 figures, and legions of
microfilms and which weighed 100 kg (220 pounds), has been replaced by several CD-ROMs,
which include the maintenance manual, an illustrated spare-parts catalog, a troubleshooting
manual, and a product management database.

Inspection technologies
The most critical portion of maintenance work is inspection to detect cracks, flaws, debonds,
delamination, corrosion, and other detrimental changes before they threaten the aircraft.
Inspectors do much of their work visually, often using nothing more sophisticated than a
flashlight and a mirror. For most of the remainder, they use ultrasound, X-rays, eddy currents,
and other nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods (see materials testing: Nondestructive
testing). Current research efforts in NDE techniques seek ultimately to probe entire aircraft with
no disassembly. A number of newer NDE technologies including holography, pulsed
thermometry, shearography, and neutron radiation are used routinely by manufacturers,
especially for such critical elements as turbine components and composites, but they have as yet
only limited applications in maintenance.

Airframe and engine overhaul

To ensure the safe operation of airliners, airframes and engines of civil and military aircraft have
obligatory major overhauls after specified time intervals. For the airframes of commercial
airliners, this is required after about five years (22,000 flight hours) of operation. In such a major
overhaul, the first phase is an evaluation of the technical health of the aircraft and its engines.
To do this, the entire structure is disassembled, and each component is visually inspected for
wear and damage. Additionally, structures are examined by X-ray, fluorescent, ultrasonic, and
dye-penetrant methods to detect defects not visible to the eye. Corrosion is removed by
sandblasting or vacuum blasting. Defective components are repaired or replaced, sometimes
requiring machining operations to make a part not carried as a spare. With delamination being
the most frequent problem faced during maintenance of composites, specialized shops have been
established as part of maintenance facilities to make required repairs.
The second phase of overhaul consists of modifications to an aircraft, either because they are
recommended by the manufacturer (through service bulletins) on the basis of service experience

or because performance can be improved. An example of the latter is the strengthening of

structural components to increase the maximum takeoff weight.
Engines, on a more frequent cycle, are completely disassembled, and individual parts are
inspected and cleaned. Precision measurement equipment verifies conformance to the tight
tolerance limits set by the manufacturers, and those components that are even marginally off are
repaired or replaced. Engines are then reassembled, mounted in a test cell, and run through a
lengthy series of tests. In all maintenance and overhaul operations, whether airframe, engine, or
accessories, technicians are required to follow the same quality-control procedures that were in
effect during original manufacture.

Remanufacture and upgrading

The most elaborate type of program under the general heading of maintenance is the
remanufacturing process. Performed at aircraft-manufacturing facilities, remanufacture is a
measure that combines a general overhaul with an upgrade of some of the aircrafts systems. The
latter process often paces the progressive development of a basic airplane type through several
models, and it incorporates design changes and improved onboard systems dictated by service
experience with the original model. Thus, if a particular model in service still has years of useful
life, it is more economical to upgrade its systems by remanufacture than to build an entirely new
aircraft.
A second reason for upgrades is the increasing in-service time being demanded from all aircraft.
Factors such as the escalating prices of new military fighters and declining defense budgets have
forced most countries to modernize their existing aircraft in order to prolong their useful life
until newer craft can be afforded. The jet-fighter upgrade market has become increasingly
significant, spawning an industry ranging from independent small firms to large national aircraft
conglomerates, including the original manufacturers, which often team with the industry of the
potential customer country to make a sales offer more attractive. The leading company in the
fighter upgrade market is Israel Aircraft Industries, which transformed an aborted airplanedevelopment program into this lucrative market. Fighter upgrades most often target three areas:
avionics, engines, and armament, all of which can greatly improve the performance of the
vehicle. Following reassembly, painting, and production testing, upgraded fighters frequently
come close in performance to that of later models.
For commercial aircraft the upgrade process is analogous. Here, too, the emphasis is on avionics
and engines, especially the latter. These upgrades can prolong the profitable operation of the
aircraft or allow it to meet the latest noise and emission regulations.

Material characteristic pmc:

Materials for ground transportation
The global effort to improve the efficiency of ground transportation vehicles, such as
automobiles, buses, trucks, and trains, and thereby reduce the massive amounts of pollutants they

emit, provides an excellent context within which to illustrate how materials science functions to
develop new or better materials in response to critical human needs. For the automobile industry
in particular, the story is a fascinating one in which the desire for lower vehicle weight, reduced
emissions, and improved fuel economy has led to intense competition among aluminum, plastics,
and steel companies for shares in the enormous markets involved (40 million to 50 million cars
and trucks per year worldwide). In this battle, materials scientists have a key role to play because
the success of their efforts to develop improved materials will determine the shape and viability
of future automobiles.

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Just how seriously suppliers to the industry view the need either to protect or to increase their
share of these enormous markets is demonstrated by their establishing of special programs,
consortia, or centres that are specifically designed to develop better alloys, plastics, or ceramics
for automotive applications. For example, in the United States a program at the Aluminum
Company of America (Alcoa) called the aluminum intensive vehicle (AIV), and a similar one at
Reynolds Metals, were established to develop materials and processes for making automobile
space frames consisting of aluminum-alloy rods and die-cast connectors joined by welding and
adhesive bonding. Not to be outdone, another aluminum company, Alcan Aluminium Limited of
Canada, in a program entitled aluminum structured vehicle technology (ASVT), began to
investigate the construction of automobile unibodies from adhesively bonded aluminum sheet.
The plastics industry, of course, has a powerful interest in replacing as many metal automobile

components as possible, and in order to help bring this about a centre called D&S Plastics
International was formed in the Detroit, Mich., area of the United States by three corporations.
The specific aim of this centre was to develop materials and a process suitable for forming
several connected panels or components (e.g., body panels and bumper fascias) simultaneously
out of different types of plastics. The centrepiece of the operation was a 4,000-ton co-injection
press that could lead to cost reductions as great as 50 percent and thereby make the use of
plastics for automotive applications more attractive.
In programs such as these, and in many more carried out by vendors and within the automobile
companies themselves, materials scientists with specialized training in advanced metals, plastics,
and ceramics have been leading a revolution in the automotive industry. The following sections
describe specific needs that have been identified for improving the performance of automobiles
and other ground-transportation vehicles, as well as approaches that materials scientists have
taken in response to those needs.

Metals
Aluminum
Since aluminum has about one-third the density of steel, its substitution for steel in automobiles
would seem to be a sensible approach to reducing weight and thereby increasing fuel economy
and reducing harmful emissions. Such substitutions cannot be made, however, without due
consideration of significant differences in other properties of the two materials. This is one
important facet of the materials scientists jobto help evaluate the suitability of a material for a
given application based on how its properties balance against load and performance requirements
specified by the design engineer. In this case (aluminum versus steel), it is instructive to consider
the materials scientists approach to evaluating the use of aluminum in automotive panelssuch
components as doors, hoods, trunk decks, and roofs that can make up more than 60 percent of a
vehicles weight.
Two primary properties of any metal are (1) its yield strength, defined as its ability to resist
permanent deformation (such as a fender dent), and (2) its elastic modulus, defined as its ability
to resist elastic or springy deflection like a drum head. By alloying, aluminum can be made to
have a yield strength equal to a moderately strong steel and therefore to exhibit similar resistance
to denting in an automobile panel. On the other hand, alloying does not normally affect the
elastic modulus of metals significantly, so that automotive door panels or hoods made from
aluminum alloys, all of which have approximately one-third the modulus of steel, would be
floppy and suffer large deflections when buffeted by the wind, for example. From this point of
view, aluminum would appear to be a marginal choice for body panels.
One might attempt to overcome this deficiency by increasing the thickness of the aluminum
sheet stock to three times the thickness of the steel it is intended to replace. This, however, would
simply increase the weight to roughly that of an equivalent steel structure and thus defeat the
purpose of the exercise. Fortunately, as was elegantly demonstrated in 1980 by two British
materials scientists, Michael Ashby and David Jones, when proper account is taken of the way an

actual door panel deflects, constrained as it is by the door edges, it is possible to use aluminum
sheet only slightly thicker than the steel it would replace and still achieve equivalent
performance. The net result would be a weight savings of almost two-thirds by the substitution of
aluminum for steel on such body components. This suggests that understanding the
interrelationship between materials properties and structural design is an important factor in the
successful application of materials science.
Another important activity of the materials scientist is that of alloy development, which in some
cases involves designing alloys for very specific applications. For example, in Alcoas AIV
effort, materials scientists and engineers developed a special casting alloy for use as cast
aluminum nodes (connecters) in their space frame design. Ordinarily, metal castings exhibit very
little toughness, or ductility, and they are therefore prone to brittle fracture followed by
catastrophic failure. Since the integrity of an automobile would be limited by having relatively
brittle body components, a proprietary casting alloy and processing procedure were developed
that provide a material of much greater ductility than is normally available in a casting alloy.
Many other advances in aluminum technology, brought about by materials scientists and design
engineers, have led to a greater acceptance of aluminum in automobiles, trucks, buses, and even
light rail vehicles. Among these are alloys for air-conditioner components that are designed to be
chemically compatible with environmentally safer refrigerants and to withstand the higher
pressures required by them. Also, alloys have been developed that combine good formability and
corrosion resistance with the ability to achieve maximum strength without heat treating; these
alloys develop their strength during the forming operation. As a consequence, the list of vehicles
that contain significant quantities of aluminum substituted for steel has steadily grown. A
milestone was reached in 1992 with a limited-edition Jaguar sports car that was virtually all
aluminum, including the engine, adhesively bonded chassis, and skin. Somewhat less expensive
and in full production were Hondas Acura NSX, containing more than 400 kilograms (900
pounds) of aluminum compared with about 70 kilograms for the average automobile, and
General Motors Saturn, with an aluminum engine block and cylinder heads. These vehicles and
others took their place alongside the British Land Rover, which was built with all-aluminum
body panels beginning in 1948a choice dictated by a shortage of steel during World War II and
continued by the manufacturer ever since.

Steel
While the goal of the aluminum and plastics industries is to achieve vehicle weight reductions by
substituting their products for steel components, the goal of the steel industry is to counter such
inroads with such innovative developments as high-strength, but inexpensive, microalloyed
steels that achieve weight savings by thickness reductions. In addition, alloys have been
developed that can be tempered (strengthened) in paint-baking ovens rather than in separate and
expensive heat-treatment furnaces normally required for conventional steels.
The microalloyed steels, also known as high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels, are intermediate
in composition between carbon steels, whose properties are controlled mainly by the amount of
carbon they contain (usually less than 1 percent), and alloy steels, which derive their strength,
toughness, and corrosion resistance primarily from other elements, including silicon, nickel, and

manganese, added in somewhat larger amounts. Developed in the l960s and resurrected in the
late 1970s to satisfy the need for weight savings through greater strength, the HSLA steels tend
to be low in carbon with minute additions of titanium or vanadium, for example. Offering tensile
strengths that can be triple the value of the carbon steels they are designed to replace (e.g., 700
megapascals versus 200 megapascals), they have led to significant weight savings through
thickness reductionsalbeit at a slight loss of structural stiffness, because their elastic moduli
are the same as other steels. They are considered to be quite competitive with aluminum
substitutes for two reasons: they are relatively inexpensive (steel sells for one-half the price of
aluminum on a per-unit-weight basis); and very little change in fabrication and processing
procedures is needed in switching from carbon steel to HSLA steel, whereas major changes are
usually required in switching to aluminum.
Bake-hardenable steels were developed specifically for the purpose of eliminating an expensive
fabrication stepi.e., the heat-treating furnace, where steels are imparted with their final
strength. To do this, materials scientists have designed steels that can be strengthened in the same
ovens used to bake body paint onto the part. These furnaces must operate at relatively low
temperatures (170 C, or 340 F), so that special steels had to be developed that would achieve
suitable strengths at heat-treatment temperatures very much below those normally employed (up
to 600 C, or 1,100 F). Knowing that high-alloy steels would never be hardenable at such low
temperatures, materials scientists focused their attention on carbon steels, but even here adequate
strengths could not be obtained initially. Then in the 1980s scientists at the Japanese Sumitomo
Metal Industries developed a steel containing nitrogen (a gas that constitutes three-quarters of the
Earths atmosphere) in addition to carbon and several other additives. Very high strengths (over
900 megapascals) and excellent toughness can be achieved on formed parts with this inexpensive
addition after baking for 20 minutes at temperatures typical for a paint-baking operation.

Plastics and composites

The motive for replacing the metal components of cars, trucks, and trains with plastics is the
expectation of large weight savings due to the large differences in density involved: plastics are
one-sixth the weight of steel and one-half that of aluminum per unit volume. However, as in
evaluating the suitability of replacing steel with aluminum, the materials scientist must compare
other properties of the materials in order to determine whether the tradeoffs are reasonable. For
two reasons, the likely conclusion would be that plastics simply are not suitable for this type of
application: the strength of most plastics, such as epoxies and polyesters, is roughly one-fifth that
of steel or aluminum; and their elastic modulus is one-sixtieth that of steel and one-twentieth that
of aluminum. On this basis, plastics do not appear to be suitable for structural components. What,
then, accounts for the successful use that has been made of them? The answer lies in efforts
made over the years by materials scientists, polymer chemists, mechanical engineers, and
production managers to combine relatively weak and low-stiffness resins with high-strength,
high-modulus reinforcements, thereby making new materials called composites with much more
suitable properties than plastics alone.
The reinforcements used in composites are generally chosen for their high strength and modulus,
as might be expected, but economic considerations often force compromises. For example,
carbon fibres have extremely high modulus values (up to five times that of steel) and therefore

make excellent reinforcements. However, their cost precludes their extensive use in automobiles,
trucks, and trains, although they are used regularly in the aerospace industry. More suitable for
non-aerospace applications are glass fibres (whose modulus can approach 1.5 times that of
aluminum) or, in somewhat special cases, a mixture of glass and carbon fibres.
The physical form and shape of the reinforcements vary greatly, depending on many factors. The
most effective reinforcements are long fibres, which are employed either in the form of a woven
cloth or as separate layers of unidirectional fibres stacked upon one another until the proper
laminate thickness is achieved. The resin may be applied to the fibres or cloth before laying up,
thus forming what are termed prepregs, or it may be added later by wetting out the fibres. In
either case, the assembly is then cured, usually under pressure, to form the composite. This type
of composite takes full advantage of the properties of the fibres and is therefore capable of
yielding strong, stiff panels. Unfortunately, the labour involved in the lay-up operations and other
factors make it very expensive, so that long-fibre reinforcement is used only sparingly in the
automobile industry.
One attempt to avoid expensive hand lay-up operations involves chopped fibres that are
employed in mat form, somewhat like felt, or as loose fibres that may be either blown into a
mold or injected into a mold along with the resin. Another method does not use fibres at all;
instead the reinforcement is in the form of small, high-modulus particles. These are the least
expensive of all to process, since the particles are simply mixed into the resin, and the mixture is
used in various types of molds. On the other hand, particles are the least efficient reinforcement
material; as a consequence, property improvements are not outstanding.
In choosing the other major constituent in composites, the polymer matrix, one faces a somewhat
daunting variety, including epoxies, polyimides, polyurethanes, and polyesters. Each has its
advantages and disadvantages that must be evaluated in order to determine suitability for a
particular application. Among the factors to be considered are cost, processing temperature
(curing temperature if using a thermoset polymer and melting temperature if using a
thermoplastic), flow properties in the molding operation, sag resistance during paint bake out,
moisture resistance, and shelf life. The number of combinations of resins, reinforcements,
production methods, and fibre-to-resin ratios is so challenging that materials scientists must join
forces with polymer chemists and engineers from the design, production, and quality-control
departments of the company in order to choose the right combination for the application.
Judging by the inroads that have been made in replacing metals with composites, it appears that
technologists have been making the right choices. The introduction of fibreglass-reinforced
plastic skins on General Motors l953 Corvette sports car marked the first appearance of
composites in a production model, and composites have continued to appear in automotive
components ever since. In 1984, General Motors Fiero was placed on the market with the entire
body made from composites, and the Camaro/Firebird models followed with doors, roof panels,
fenders, and other parts made of composites. Composites were also chosen for exterior panels in
the Saturn, which appeared in 1990. In addition, they have had less visible applicationsfor
example, the glass-reinforced nylon air-intake manifold on some BMW models.

Ceramics

Ceramics play an important role in engine efficiency and pollution abatement in automobiles and
trucks. For example, one type of ceramic, cordierite (a magnesium aluminosilicate), is used as a
substrate and support for catalysts in catalytic converters. It was chosen for this purpose because,
along with many ceramics, it is lightweight, can operate at very high temperatures without
melting, and conducts heat poorly (helping to retain exhaust heat for improved catalytic
efficiency). In a novel application of ceramics, a cylinder wall was made of transparent sapphire
(aluminum oxide) by General Motors researchers in order to examine visually the internal
workings of a gasoline engine combustion chamber. The intention was to arrive at improved
understanding of combustion control, leading to greater efficiency of internal-combustion
engines.
Another application of ceramics to automotive needs is a ceramic sensor that is used to measure
the oxygen content of exhaust gases. The ceramic, usually zirconium oxide to which a small
amount of yttrium has been added, has the property of producing a voltage whose magnitude
depends on the partial pressure of oxygen surrounding the material. The electrical signal
obtained from such a sensor is then used to control the fuel-to-air ratio in the engine in order to
obtain the most efficient operation.
Because of their brittleness, ceramics have not been used as load-bearing components in groundtransportation vehicles to any great extent. The problem remains a challenge to be solved by
materials scientists of the future.
John D. Venables

Materials for aerospace

The primary goal in the selection of materials for aerospace structures is the enhancement of fuel
efficiency to increase the distance traveled and the payload delivered. This goal can be attained
by developments on two fronts: increased engine efficiency through higher operating
temperatures and reduced structural weight. In order to meet these needs, materials scientists
look to materials in two broad areasmetal alloys and advanced composite materials. A key
factor contributing to the advancement of these new materials is the growing ability to tailor
materials to achieve specific properties.

Metals
Many of the advanced metals currently in use in aircraft were designed specifically for
applications in gas-turbine engines, the components of which are exposed to high temperatures,
corrosive gases, vibration, and high mechanical loads. During the period of early jet engines
(from about 1940 to 1970), design requirements were met by the development of new alloys
alone. But the more severe requirements of advanced propulsion systems have driven the
development of novel alloys that can withstand temperatures greater than 1,000 C (1,800 F),
and the structural performance of such alloys has been improved by developments in the
processes of melting and solidification.

Melting and solidifying

Alloys are substances composed of two or more metals or of a metal and a nonmetal that are
intimately united, usually by dissolving in each other when they are melted. The principal
objectives of melting are to remove impurities and to mix the alloying ingredients
homogeneously in the base metal. Major advances have been made with the development of new
processes based on melting under vacuum (hot isostatic pressing), rapid solidification, and
directional solidification.
In hot isostatic pressing, prealloyed powders are packed into a thin-walled, collapsible container,
which is placed in a high-temperature vacuum to remove adsorbed gas molecules. It is then
sealed and put in a press, where it is exposed to very high temperatures and pressures. The mold
collapses and welds the powder together in the desired shape.
Molten metals cooled at rates as high as a million degrees per second tend to solidify into a
relatively homogeneous microstructure, since there is insufficient time for crystalline grains to
nucleate and grow. Such homogeneous materials tend to be stronger than the typical grainy
metals. Rapid cooling rates can be achieved by splat cooling, in which molten droplets are
projected onto a cold surface. Rapid heating and solidification can also be achieved by passing
high-power laser beams over the materials surface.
Unlike composite materials (see below Composites), grainy metals exhibit properties that are
essentially the same in all directions, so they cannot be tailored to match anticipated load paths
(i.e., stresses applied in specific directions). However, a technique called directional
solidification provides a certain degree of tailorability. In this process the temperature of the
mold is precisely controlled to promote the formation of aligned stiff crystals as the molten metal
cools. These serve to reinforce the component in the direction of alignment in the same fashion
as fibres reinforce composite materials.

Alloying
These advances in processing have been accompanied by the development of new superalloys.
Superalloys are high-strength, often complex alloys that are resistant to high temperatures and
severe mechanical stress and that exhibit high surface stability. They are commonly classified
into three major categories: nickel-based, cobalt-based, and iron-based. Nickel-based superalloys
predominate in the turbine section of jet engines. Although they have little inherent resistance to
oxidation at high temperatures, they gain desirable properties through the addition of cobalt,
chromium, tungsten, molybdenum, titanium, aluminum, and niobium.
Aluminum-lithium alloys are stiffer and less dense than conventional aluminum alloys. They are
also superplastic, owing to the fine grain size that can now be achieved in processing. Alloys in
this group are appropriate for use in engine components exposed to intermediate to high
temperatures; they can also be used in wing and body skins.

Titanium alloys, as modified to withstand high temperatures, are seeing increased use in turbine
engines. They are also employed in airframes, primarily for military aircraft but to some extent
for commercial planes as well.

Composites
While developments in metals have had an impact on engine design, there is a growing trend
toward the application of composite materials to aerospace structures. One of the reasons for this
is that alloys do not offer substantial weight savings, which is a primary advantage of
composites. Indeed, advanced composites have been used most widely where saving mass results
in either significantly improved performance or significantly lower life-cycle costs. The most
extensive application, therefore, has been in satellite systems, military aircraft, radomes,
helicopters, commercial transport aircraft, and general aviation.
Broadly defined, composites are materials with two or more distinct components that combine to
yield characteristics superior to those of the individual constituents. Although this definition can
apply to such ordinary building materials as plywood, concrete, and bricks, within the aerospace
industry the term composite generally refers to the fibre-reinforced metal, polymer, and ceramic
products that have come into use since World War II. These materials consist of fibres (such as
glass, graphite, silicon carbide, or aramid) that are embedded in a matrix of, for example,
aluminum, epoxy, or silicon nitride.
In the late 1950s a revolution in materials development occurred in response to the space
programs need for lightweight, thermally stable materials. Boron-tungsten filaments, carbongraphite fibres, and organic aramid fibres proved to be strong, stiff, and light, but one problem
with using them as fibres was that they were of limited value in any construction other than rope,
which can bear loads in only one direction. Materials scientists needed to develop a way to make
them useful under all loading conditions, and this led to the development of composites. While
the structural value of a bundle of fibres is low, the strength of individual fibres can be harnessed
if they are embedded in a matrix that acts as an adhesive, binding the fibres and lending solidity
to the material. The matrix also protects the fibres from environmental stress and physical
damage, which can initiate cracks. In addition, while the strength and stiffness of the composite
remain largely a function of the reinforcing materialthat is, the fibresthe matrix can
contribute other properties, such as thermal and electrical conductivity and, most important,
thermal stability. Finally, fibre-matrix combination reduces the potential for complete fracture. In
a monolithic (or single) material, a crack, once started, generally continues to propagate until the
material fails; in a composite, if one fibre in an assemblage fails, the crack may not extend to the
other fibres, so the damage is limited.

To some extent, the

composite-materials engineer is trying to mimic structures made spontaneously by plants and
animals. A tree, for example, is made of a fibre-reinforced material whose strength is derived
from cellulose fibres that grow in directions that match the weight of the branches. Similarly,
many organisms naturally fabricate bioceramics, such as those found in shells, teeth, and
bones. While the designers of composites for the aerospace industry would like to copy some of
the features of bioceramics productionroom-temperature processing and net-shape products,
for examplethey do not want to be constrained by slow processing methods and limited fibre
and matrix material choices. In addition, unlike a mollusk, which has to produce only one shell,
the composites manufacturer has to use rapid, repeatable processing methods that can fabricate
hundreds or even thousands of parts.
Modern composites are generally classified into three categories according to the matrix
material: polymer, metal, or ceramic. Since polymeric materials tend to degrade at elevated
temperatures, polymer-matrix composites (PMCs) are restricted to secondary structures in which
operating temperatures are lower than 300 C (570 F). For higher temperatures, metal-matrix
and ceramic-matrix composites are required.

Polymer-matrix composites
PMCs are of two broad types, thermosets and thermoplastics. Thermosets are solidified by
irreversible chemical reactions, in which the molecules in the polymer cross-link, or form
connected chains. The most common thermosetting matrix materials for high-performance
composites used in the aerospace industry are the epoxies. Thermoplastics, on the other hand, are
melted and then solidified, a process that can be repeated numerous times for reprocessing.
Although the manufacturing technologies for thermoplastics are generally not as well developed
as those for thermosets, thermoplastics offer several advantages. First, they do not have the shelflife problem associated with thermosets, which require freezer storage to halt the irreversible
curing process that begins at room temperature. Second, they are more desirable from an
environmental point of view, as they can be recycled. They also exhibit higher fracture toughness
and better resistance to solvent attack. Unfortunately, thermoplastics are more expensive, and
they generally do not resist heat as well as thermosets; however, strides are being made in
developing thermoplastics with higher melting temperatures. Overall, thermoplastics offer a

greater choice of processing approaches, so that the process can be determined by the scale and
rate of production required and by the size of the component.
A variety of reinforcements can be used with both thermoset and thermoplastic PMCs, including
particles, whiskers (very fine single crystals), discontinuous (short) fibres, continuous fibres, and
textile preforms (made by braiding, weaving, or knitting fibres together in specified designs).
Continuous fibres are more efficient at resisting loads than are short ones, but it is more difficult
to fabricate complex shapes from materials containing continuous fibres than from short-fibre or
particle-reinforced materials. To aid in processing, most high-performance composites are
strengthened with filaments that are bundled into yarns. Each yarn, or tow, contains thousands of
filaments, each of which has a diameter of approximately 10 micrometres (0.01 millimetre, or
0.0004 inch).
Depending on the application and on the type of load to be applied to the composite part, the
reinforcement can be random, unidirectional (aligned in a single direction), or multidirectional
(oriented in two or three dimensions). If the load is uniaxial, the fibres are all aligned in the load
direction to gain maximum benefit of their stiffness and strength. However, for multidirectional
loading (for example, in aircraft skins), the fibres must be oriented in a variety of directions. This
is often accomplished by stacking layers (or lamina) of continuous-fibre systems.
The most common form of material used for the fabrication of composite structures is the
preimpregnated tape, or prepreg. There are two categories of prepreg: tapes, generally 75
millimetres (3 inches) or less in width, intended for fabrication in automated, computercontrolled tape-laying machines; and broad goods, usually several metres in dimension,
intended for hand lay-up and large sheet applications. To make prepregs, fibres are subjected to a
surface treatment so that the resin will adhere to them. They are then placed in a resin bath and
rolled into tapes or sheets.
To fabricate the composite, the manufacturer lays up the prepreg according to the
reinforcement needs of the application. This has traditionally been done by hand, with successive
layers of a broad-goods laminate stacked over a tool in the shape of the desired part in such a
way as to accommodate the anticipated loads. However, efforts are now being directed toward
automated fibre-placement methods in order to reduce costs and ensure quality and repeatability.
Automated fibre-placement processes fall into two categories, tape laying and filament winding.
The tape-laying process involves the use of devices that control the placement of narrow prepreg
tapes over tooling with the contours of the desired part and along paths prescribed by the design
requirements of the structure. The width of the tape determines the sharpness of the turns
required to place the fibres in the prescribed directioni.e., wide tapes are used for gradual
turns, while narrow tapes are required for the sharp turns associated with more complex shapes.
Filament winding uses the narrowest prepreg unit availablethe yarn, or tow, of impregnated
filaments. In this process, the tows are wound in prescribed directions over a rotating mandrel in
the shape of the part. Successive layers are added until the required thickness is reached.
Although filament winding was initially limited to geodesic paths (i.e., winding the fibres along
the most direct route between two points), the process is now capable of fabricating complex
shapes through the use of robots.

For thermosetting polymers, the structure generated by either tape laying or filament winding
must undergo a second manipulation in order to solidify the polymer through a curing reaction.
This is usually accomplished by heating the completed structure in an autoclave, or oven.
Thermoplastic systems offer the advantage of on-line consolidation, so that the high energy and
capital costs associated with the curing step can be eliminated. For these systems, prepreg can be
locally melted, consolidated, and cooled at the point of contact so that a finished structure is
produced. A variety of energy sources are used to concentrate heat at the point of contact,
including hot-gas torches, infrared light, and laser beams.
Pultrusion, the only truly continuous process for manufacturing parts from PMCs, is economical
but limited to the production of beamlike shapes. On a pultrusion line, fibres and the resin are
pushed through a heated die, or shaping tool, at one end, then cooled and pulled out at the other
end. This process can be applied to both thermoplastic and thermoset polymers.
Resin transfer molding, or RTM, is a composites processing method that offers a high potential
for tailorability but is currently limited to low-viscosity (easily flowing) thermosetting polymers.
In RTM, a textile preformmade by braiding, weaving, or knitting fibres together in a specified
designis placed into a mold, which is then closed and injected with a resin. After
consolidation, the mold is opened and the part removed. Preforms can be made in a wide variety
of architectures, and several can be joined together during the RTM process to form a multielement preform offering reinforcement in specific areas and load directions.
The similarity of meltable thermoplastic polymers to metals has prompted the extension of
techniques used in metalworking. Sheet forming, used since the 19th century by metallurgists, is
now applied to the processing of thermoplastic composites. In a typical thermoforming process,
the sheet stock, or preform, is heated in an oven. At the forming temperature, the sheet is
transferred into a forming system, where it is forced to conform to a tool, with a shape that
matches the finished part. After forming, the sheet is cooled under pressure and then removed.
Stretch forming, a variation on thermoplastic sheet forming, is specifically designed to take
advantage of the extensibility, or ability to be stretched, of thermoplastics reinforced with long,
discontinuous fibres. In this process, a straight preconsolidated beam is heated and then stretched
over a shaped tool to introduce curvature. The specific advantage of stretch forming is that it
provides an automated way to achieve a very high degree of fibre-orientation control in a wide
range of part sizes.

Metal-matrix and ceramic-matrix composites

The requirement that finished parts be able to operate at temperatures high enough to melt or
degrade a polymer matrix creates the need for other types of matrix materials, often metals.
Metal matrices offer not only high-temperature resistance but also strength and ductility, or
bendability, which increases toughness. The main problems with metal-matrix composites
(MMCs) are that even the lightest metals are heavier than polymers, and they are very complex
to process. MMCs can be used in such areas as the skin of a hypersonic aircraft, but on wing
edges and in engines temperatures often exceed the melting point of metals. For the latter
applications, ceramic-matrix composites (CMCs) are seeing increasing use, although the
technology for CMCs is less mature than that for PMCs. Ceramics consist of alumina, silica,

zirconia, and other elements refined from fine earth and sand or of synthetic materials, such as
silicon nitride or silicon carbide. The desirable properties of ceramics include superior heat
resistance and low abrasive and corrosive properties. Their primary drawback is brittleness,
which can be reduced by reinforcing with fibres or whiskers. The reinforcement material can be
a metal or another ceramic.
Unlike polymers and metals, which can be processed by techniques that involve melting (or
softening) followed by solidification, high-temperature ceramics cannot be melted. They are
generally produced by some variation of sintering, a technique that renders a combination of
materials into a coherent mass by heating to high temperatures without complete melting. If
continuous fibres or textile weaves (as opposed to short fibres or whiskers) are involved,
sintering is preceded by impregnating the assembly of fibres with a slurry of ceramic particles
dispersed in a liquid. A major benefit of using CMCs in aircraft engines is that they allow higher
operating temperatures and thus greater combustion efficiency, leading to reduced fuel
consumption. An additional benefit is derived from the low density of CMCs, which translates
into substantial weight savings.

Other advanced composites

Carbon-carbon composites are closely related to CMCs but differ in the methods by which they
are produced. Carbon-carbon composites consist of semicrystalline carbon fibres embedded in a
matrix of amorphous carbon. The composite begins as a PMC, with semicrystalline carbon fibres
impregnated with a polymeric phenolic resin. The resin-soaked system is heated in an inert
atmosphere to pyrolyze, or char, the polymer to a carbon residue. The composite is reimpregnated with polymer, and the pyrolysis is repeated. Continued repetition of this
impregnation/pyrolysis process yields a structure with minimal voids. Carbon-carbon composites
retain their strength at 2,500 C (4,500 F) and are used in the nose cones of reentry vehicles.
However, because they are vulnerable to oxidation at such high temperatures, they must be
protected by a thin layer of ceramic.
While materials research for aerospace applications has focused largely on mechanical properties
such as stiffness and strength, other attributes are important for use in space. Materials are
needed with a near-zero coefficient of thermal expansion; in other words, they have to be
thermally stable and should not expand and contract when exposed to extreme changes in
temperature. A great deal of research is focused on developing such materials for high-speed
civilian aircraft, where thermal cycling is a major issue. High-toughness materials and
nonflammable resin composite systems are also under investigation to improve the safety of
aircraft interiors.
Efforts are also being directed toward the development of smart, or responsive, materials.
Representing another attempt to mimic certain characteristics of living organisms, smart
materials, with their built-in sensors and actuators, would react to their external environment by
bringing on a desired response. This would be done by linking the mechanical, electrical, and
magnetic properties of these materials. For example, piezoelectric materials generate an
electrical current when they are bent; conversely, when an electrical current is passed through
these materials, they stiffen. This property can be used to suppress vibration: the electrical

current generated during vibration could be detected, amplified, and sent back, causing the
material to stiffen and stop vibrating.

Polymer Matrix Composites - Typical Properties of

Fibre Reinforced Plastics
Sponsored by Composites Processing Association

Topics Covered
List Topics
Properties of FRPs That Can be Improved
Typical Properties of E-Glass Chopped Fibre Reinforced Polyester Resin
Typical Properties of E-Glass Woven Roving Reinforced Polyester Resin

Standard Properties of FRPs

The following can be considered as the standard properties typically exhibited by an FRP
composites component.

High strength at low weight

Ability to tailor properties to meet wide-ranging performance specifications

Moulding to close dimensional tolerances, with their retention under in-service conditions

Good impact, compression, fatigue and electrical properties

Ability to markedly reduce part assembly

Excellent environmental resistance

Ability to fabricate massive one-piece mouldings

Proven in-service track record

Low-to-moderate tooling costs

Cost-effective manufacturing processes

Ability to build in, ex-mould, both colour and texture

Excellent chemical and corrosion resistance

High ultra-violet radiation stability

Good-to-excellent fire hardness

Good structural integrity

Good thermal insulation

Ability to attenuate sound

Respectable abrasion resistance

Ready bonding to dissimilar materials

Medium-to-high productivity rates

Properties of FRPs That Can be Improved

The following additional properties can readily be provided by reinforcement and/or matrix
alteration, chemical addition or other formulation, material, or fabrication alteration.

Excellent chemical and corrosion resistance

High ultra-violet radiation stability

Good-to-excellent fire hardness

Good structural integrity

Good thermal insulation

Ability to attenuate sound

Respectable abrasion resistance

Ready bonding to dissimilar materials

Medium-to-high productivity rates

Typical Properties of E-Glass Chopped Fibre Reinforced

Polyester Resin
Typical properties of E-glass chopped strand Mat/Unsaturated polyester resin at various glass
contents.
Resin: Glass
Ratio (by wt)

1.855

2.25

2.5

2.75

Wt Frac. (%)

35.03

33.33

30.77

28.57

26.67

25.00

Vol Frac Fibre

(%)

20.24

19.05

17.30

15.84

14.61

13.56

Laminate
thickness (mm)

1.94

2.06

2.27

2.48

2.68

2.89

Tensile Str
(N/mm2)

103

97

88

81

75

69

Tensile Mod.
(N/mm2)

7224

6800

6175

5655

5216

4641

Typical Properties of E-Glass Woven Roving Reinforced

Polyester Resin
Typical properties of E-glass woven roving/unsaturated polyester resin at various glass contents.
Resin: Glass
Ratio (by wt)

0.85

1.15

1.3

1.5

1.65

Wt Frac. (%)

54.1

50.0

46.5

43.5

40.0

37.7

Vol Frac Fibre

(%)

35.6

32.0

29.0

26.6

23.9

22.2

Laminate
thickness (mm)

1.10

1.23

1.35

1.48

1.64

1.77

Tensile Str
(N/mm2)

227

204

185

169

152

141

14539

13056

11848

10844

9743

9054

Tensile Mod.
(N/mm2)