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Lecture about repairing composite structures |
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ADSE delivered a presentation on the KIVI-Niria mini-symposium on composites which was held on March 16th. In front of 50 people from different branches in the Dutch industry, this presentation was given in Papendrecht at Fokker Aerostructures by Kees Vernooij. It dealt with repairing composite structures and parts and the specific certification aspects of that.
The way damages and repair possibilities are dealt with in the increasing number of applications of composite structures in new airplanes like the Boeing 787 and Airbus 350, is looked at with suspicion. This is because current experience with thin-walled composite parts in the last 20-30 years is still not flawless. For the large part this can be assigned to unforeseen damages caused by non competent usage of bystanders like ground service personnel. Also, the experiences with normal damages caused by hailstones, lightening, and accidents with the landing gear weren’t actively translated into product design and developing standard repair methods. Because of this, the needs of operators and maintenance personnel were not met. However, in the mean time a lot has been learned and in the presentation Kees Vernooij has described how this problem can be taken on for future design and development. |
