HEMERA

The joint project HEMERA, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy within the framework of the Aviation Research Program LuFo VII-1, aims at the development and validation of high-rate CFRP manufacturing processes for large, single-curved, and stringer-stiffened fuselage panels. The focus is on the prototypical manufacturing of these panels from thermoset CFRP. The overarching goal is to make fiber composite materials accessible for future high-rate production of >70 aircraft per month while achieving significant weight reduction potential. By the end of the project, the technological maturity of the processes is to be increased and their suitability for series production demonstrated.

Click here to learn more of the joint project HEMERA, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy within the framework of the Aviation Research Program LuFo VII-1

To achieve the ambitious climate goals in aviation, future aircraft generations must be built significantly lighter and manufactured in a more sustainable way.  Existing manufacturing processes for large, stringer-stiffened fuselage shells require an optimization in terms of speed, costs, and energy-consumption for targeted production rates of over 70 aircraft per month. Conventional fiber composite construction methods do not currently fully exploit the lightweight potential of CFRP structures. There is a lack of industrialized, highly automated process chains that enable resource-efficient and low-tolerance manufacturing of CFRP panels within the required tact time.

The work within the consortium includes the following activities: Design Requirements, High-Rate Stringer Production, High-Rate Skin Production, and Test and Validation. The central key technologies are the development of a continuous stringer production process and innovative, convex lay-up tools (male moulds), which allow for the integration of the stringers already during skin lay-up at a high degree of automation. The technological feasibility, cost efficiency, and sustainability of the process chains will be validated through accompanying structural tests and the manufacturing of large components (validators).