Topic: Atmospheric plasma surface treatment of carbon-fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) in aircraft construction prior to adhesive bonding and painting.
New materials in aircraft construction: efficient pretreatment with atmospheric plasma
Aircraft construction has seen a fundamental shift in the materials used in that industry. In the past, aluminum alloys were used almost exclusively for aircraft outer skin and stringers. Today, these components are manufactured primarily from carbon-fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP).
The first industrial application of these materials goes back to 2007, when Boeing used them in its B787 and Dreamliner aircraft. CFRP has been further enhanced since then and today the Airbus A350WXB consists of more than 40% CFRP materials, to cite one example.
Surface treatment with Openair® Plasma in aircraft construction is an innovation driver that offers many outstanding advantages:
- Plasma pretreatment improves stability of CFRP components.
- Openair® plasma enables reliable high-quality processing in downstream bonding and painting operations.
- Openair® plasma makes possible for the first time selective, robot-guided inline plasma pretreatment on large-format components.
- Only an atmospheric process is feasible for pretreatment of such components because of their large dimensions.
