Not less than 5% weight saving for primary structures
Up to 40% reduction of full life cycle cost from recycling of scrap materials
Up to 20% reduction in design and certification costs for primary structures
Up to 25% lower manufacturing costs for primary structures
Reduction of energy consumption and environmental impact
NHYTE will contribute to the development of integrated green manufacturing processes towards reducing energy consumption and negative environmental impact. To this end, the consortium aims for :
- Weight saving not less than 5% for primary structures, namely not less than 8% for narrow body fuselage structures, obtained through the utilization of the proposed improved prepreg material. Weight saving is translated to lower fuel consumptions and therefore lower CO2 and NOx emissions.
- Reduced energy demand associated to the process simplification since the use of an autoclave curing phase is not required including improved cycle times.
- Reduction of full life cycle cost from recycling of scrap materials (up to 40%) and end of life structures as in the case of thermoplastic based composites recycling is further enhanced.
Maintaining industrial leadership
The utilization of thermoplastic based composites for primary and secondary aero-structures, made possible and affordable by the new concept, will advance the competitiveness of the European aircraft industry as it will provide:
- Increased structural efficiency which is equivalent to toughness improvement (multilayer material) and better impact damage performance.
- Reduction in design and certification costs (incl. testing) up to 20% for primary structures. NHYTE will give a direct impact on solving the certification problems through the development of activities and numerical tools that will standardize the key parameters and evaluate the properties of the investigated materials, processes and structures, based both on experimental activity and on theoretical analysis.
- Increased safety and reliability associated to lower manufacturing costs up to 25% for primary structures obtained by the lower temperature and energy consumptions and simplified processing, as well as improved recyclability.
- Decreased operational costs by the optimal use of the resources, better damage behavior and reduced maintenance cost.
Breakthrough technologies
Technologies that will be developed within the NHYTE project are far beyond the current state-of-the-art, by allowing applications never performed before which are focused on, but not limited to, the aviation sector.
