Composites Preforms Simulations for Helicopters Parts

At the moment the huge majority of the structural parts is based on pre-preg designs and standard prepreg manufacturing technology. They are processed conventionally out of Hand Lay-up and cured in autoclaves. The cost drivers are the hand-work, the use of autoclave and the quality control. The future success of new helicopter programs is strongly dependant on the development of cost efficient manufacturing along with enhancement of concurrent engineering of complex and light CFRP parts. Those technology drivers are summed up in the figure 1.