Change needed
However, composite materials in these planes also have their challenges. They are based on thermosets – that can’t be recycled and have short shelf-lives.7 The machining process carry the risk of health impacts for operators8, incur long production lead times and can’t be welded, which leads to aircraft assembly inefficiencies.
The aviation industry initiatives are now working hard to leverage the art of manufacturing lightweight planes – making them faster and greener – to reduce the plane’s economic and environmental impact from manufacturing.
LMPAEK™ Polymer - the breakthrough material
The invention of LMPAEK™ polymer by Victrex, is rapidly gaining presence as a breakthrough in addressing many of these challenges.
Victrex has a long history within the aerospace industry and strong relationships with the major airframers. The journey of developing and becoming the sole manufacturer of LMPAEK™ polymer began from a need for change within the industry – to address the challenges of scalability, cost, performance and processability of existing materials.
The primary motivation for creating LMPAEK™ polymer was to make processing easier at much lower temperatures but keeping its high temperature properties.
The other feature of this new polymer is its slower speed of crystallisation. PEEK crystallises extremely quickly which is beneficial in injection moulding applications, whereas in composites processing, becomes suitable to crystallise more slowly as this helps lay-up and consolidation, especially out-of-autoclave [Fig 1]. This feature also gives the potential for welding large structural parts during assembly. [Fig 2]