Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Plastics (CFRP) and Composites for Aerospace

Composites have long been established for use in the aerospace industry, due to their many exceptional material properties, such as particularly low weight, high-tensile strength and stiffness as well as excellent fire protection capabilities. Additionally, aircraft manufacturers and their suppliers are now also focusing more and more on production efficiency and production speed.

For years, current generations of aircraft, such as the Boeing 787, the Airbus A350 and other programs, have been largely made of the innovative material mix of carbon fibers and polymer resins. One of the challenges facing the industry, which is still growing dynamically, is that of producing passenger aircraft in quantities of more than 60 deliveries per month, and at the same time to manufacture them more cost-effectively than ever before. This trend can also be seen in the small aircraft and helicopter sector. On top of this, new aerospace applications are coming up such as drones and air taxis.

At SGL Carbon we are therefore focusing on the serial production of composite components. We are transferring our comprehensive expertise and highly efficient materials, increasingly from the automotive sector and other industries to aerospace.

Our product portfolio already includes a wide range of prepregs and semi-finished textile fiber products for secondary structural components for aerospace, such as interior elements including floor panels, partition walls and water/wastewater systems. To speed up growth in this market segment, we also entered into a development cooperation with Solvay at the end of 2019, to bring fiber composites for primary structures, based on large-tow carbon fibers to the market for the first time (see special below).

In the small aircraft, helicopter and air taxi sector, we even offer a full range of services from engineering to finished components. This also includes a new innovative manufacturing process called “Fast Profile”, a combination of braiding and winding, which we will be presenting for the first time at JEC World in May 2020. Since the beginning of the year, we have already been producing landing gears made of braided carbon fiber materials in serial production for air taxis.

CFRP Lightweight Components for the Aerospace Industry

Filler for Lightweight Composite Materials

High-Performance Insulations

The aircrafts of the future are going to get lighter and lighter. At the same time, aircraft manufacturers and their suppliers are focusing more and more on production efficiency and production speed. One of the keys to these improvements is the development of more new types of composites.