Collins Aerospace

As a sales director at Collins Aerospace – Advanced Structures, Rene van der Burg's responsibility is to drive the further growth of thermoplastic composite detail parts and integrated aerostructures. In an exclusive interview with Manufacturing Technology Insights, van der Burg talked about how they address key areas of importance for customers: weight reduction for fuel savings, reliability improvements, and sustainable practices across the entire product lifecycle.

 What are the current trends that are influencing the aerospace industry in terms of manufacturing?

Scaling up for larger and more complex components, integration by welding and  industrialization for high rate production are the current trends for thermoplastic composites in the aerospace industry. We are currently able to produce parts with a length up to 1,5 meter. From next year on we will have capabilities to produce parts of roughly 2,5 x 1,3 meters. On our Continuous Compression Machine we have recently produced our largest one piece part ever, a 7 meter long TP raceway. Together with our customers we are working on various new products which require all kind of complex part design and features such as thickness variations, joggles, flanged holes. Target application areas are: flight control surfaces, nacelles, doors, floor structures, fuselage frames, ribs.

As of November 17^th 2021 Dutch Thermoplastic Components became part of the Collins family. DTC’s facility in Almere, the Netherlands will continue to be the primary manufacturing location and customer development center for stamp formed components. However, with Collins’ TP pilot line (including AFP and welding capabilities) in Riverside California and dedicated engineer teams across various Collins businesses, we are able to offer a more broader portfolio:from build to print thermoplastic components to design to build integrated thermoplastic aerospace structures!

. And that last one is where the major benefits are for thermoplastic composites. Integrated structures that are made by welding thermoplastic components together offers huge weight and cost savings as we can eliminate or at least minimize the amount of traditional fasteners. Reducing weight leads to lower fuel burn which result in enhanced CO2 footprint. And with much better options to recycle, thermoplastic composites are definitely one of the more sustainable technologies.

Due to COVID, there were numerous supply chain interruptions. How did you decide to handle sourcing internally?

We are completely vertical integrated. All our capabilities are under one roof.. We only procure thermoplastic composites UD tapes and pre-consolidated laminates and aluminum or steel blocks. Toolmaking, lamination, consolidation, thermoforming, NC trimming, edge seal, paint as well as CMM and NDI inspection are done inhouse So, nothing is outsourced.

“I believe that working together within the sector and focusing on temp plastics fundamentals is essential”

New capabilities such as AFP and welding are being developed at our pilotline in the USA. Once these capabilities are matured, we will integrated them for serial production in our manufacturing site in the Netherlandsproduction facility.

Is there a tech trend that you are utilizing in your business and finding to be quite advantageous?

One of the inhouse capabilities that we have developed and is offering us competitive advantage is our Automated Tape Laying combined with Press Consolidation. With this technology we are able to produce tailored blanks with thickness variations through ply drops. In other words we can optimize for weight on component level by adding more material where it is needed and saving on materials were possible. By this technology we stepped away from the traditional sheet metal approach tape and are turning thermoplastic into a real composite technology. From 2023 on we will have parts flying that are qualified with this technology.

Furthermore it is scheduled to implement some more unique technologies that are currently being developed at Collins TP pilotline in the US.

Last be not least we are ramping up for high rate production. The execution of our automation roadmap was accelerated when we were hit by COVID. As a matter of fact it was one of the key focus areas to maintain our engineering staff, while production and developments projects were slowed down or even cancelled. That approach has result in the fact that we are now able to automatically load and unload some of our stamp forming presses as well as NC trim stations. An important enabler to ramp up for high rate production and to optimize our support to some of our key customers.

What would be your single piece of advice to your fellow peers? 

An important step to accelerate the further adoption of thermoplastic composites in the aerospace industry is to have a solid and robust supply chain. From that point of view it is important to address some of the topics and challenges together in order to create a break through. As mentioned earlier, welding is a unique technology that will enable the use of integrated thermoplastic structures. Jointly working on the fundaments and on a path to certification will be one of the key drivers.One of the initiatives that’s a good reference in this aspect is TPRC ThermoPlastic Research Center in the Netherlands. Partners from all over the world, who may be competitors in their running business, are collaborating on projects to gain a better understanding of the principles of thermoplastic technologies composites to essentially enhance acceptance of adopting this new technology on a new and/or existing aircraft.Working together to create mass and momentum must be our joint goal.