Curing technology

Project overview

Quickstep and AMGC have undertaken a project to develop a low-cost carbon fibre composite fender aimed for the European automotive market. This project has seen Quickstep qualify to supply composite fenders via a joint venture entity in Europe to satisfy requirements for just-in-time manufacture within 200km of their assembly plant. The concept has since attracted interest from composite material suppliers and aerospace manufacturers.

Quickstep is now seeking to adapt the Qure process for aerospace applications. The proposed ‘AeroQure’ solution will be an enhancement of the technology developed for the automotive industry in the previous AMGC project with Quickstep. In this follow-on project, the system pressure will be increased from 0.8 bar, used in the Qure process for Automotive components, to 2.5 bar in order to achieve the level of porosity and void content required for aerospace components while keeping production cycle times closer to typical production rates for sports and luxury cars.

Out of Autoclave (OOA) technologies promise those cost reductions and higher rates of unit production. The main OOA technologies the industry is currently focusing on still require significant cycle times or be some way from reaching technology maturity. These technologies have the potential to be much faster, but currently they involve significant risk and are slower than conventional autoclave technologies.

A closed mould, high rate curing technology like Quickstep’s AeroQure 2.5 to be developed in this project, has the potential to reduce price per aerospace component by 25-35% due to a faster and more automated process and a lower capital cost amortisation.

Project Impact

Expected Impact

• This project aims to develop a superior product offering via an advanced manufacturing process that achieves the future rate needs of commercial aircraft manufacturers for current and new programs (expected to reach monthly rates close to 100 aircraft and higher). The process will be significantly faster and more cost competitive than traditional autoclave curing and will be competitive with other out-of-autoclave curing processes being developed internationally

Expected Growth

• Technology ready for increased production volume of 100 parts per month on completion of this project, with future potential to reach a monthly target rate of up to 500
• Reduce product rework issues such as core crush (collapse of composites during the autoclave process)

Expected Jobs

• Three to 10 positions when a contract is in place

Project Contributions