Airtificial sucessfully carried out the manufacture of hierarchical carbon fibre structures

Carbon has a variety of allotropes and structures that make it a highly versatile element.
The unique properties of nano-carbons make them of interest for a wide range of applications including energy, environment, biology, medicine, etc.
The nanostructures have brought various extraordinary properties such as electrical, mechanical and thermal ones, so that many researchers believe they were the new wonder material that could replace carbon fiber in several industrial applications.
We are pleased to inform that the manufacture of the unidirectional Hierarchical carbon fiber, impregnated of 3R resin with nano-components, has been successfully developed. This material was developed at the Composite and Intelligent Materials Laboratory (CSML) of the University of Ioannina (UOI), by using machinery developed by FOM Technologies and the materials provided by CIDETEC and Nanocyl. Sonaca, B&T Composites and our company AIRTIFICIAL are the ones responsible of transforming these materials into finished parts.
The know-how provided by AIRTIFICIAL and each partner of the consortium makes this project to become a reality, as we are facing the third and last year of HARVEST project. Therefore, Airtificial will manufacture, by using Hand Lay-Up and autoclave technology, the first structures made of this composite material.

 

 

During the manufacturing process, the prepreg plies are stacked on the tool face of the mould. Several compactions are made by means of a vacuum bag that presses the prepreg plies against the tool, to eliminate the entrapped air within. Once the lay-up process is finished, a final bag covers the whole piece, holding a vacuum and ensuring its tightness. Once the tightness of the bag is verified, the curing process is carried out by means of an autoclave. The autoclave parameters are programmed for an optimum curing of the resin, under certain values of temperature and pressure.
After manufacturing several test samples, Airtificial will soon manufacture a functional demonstrator to work as a thermoelectrically-enabled aerostructures with autonomous SHM capabilities.
Soon you will see the results!