Along the Bond Line Groundbreaking Aircraft Structures Metal Bonding
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Along the bond line Groundbreaking aircraft structures Metal bonding Thousands of years ago man became aware that some substances are really sticky and can be used to fix and assemble parts. This discovery developed into knowledge and art of gluing or bonding, a very useful engineering and manufacturing skill to attach similar or different materials to each other. It is quite obvious to use an adhesive substance from a tin could actually substance made from plants or provide structure to this magical new animals to connect wood to metal of the future. something else. Nevertheless in the The concept of bonding metal to 1930’s something weird and metal was invented in the UK, in the untraditional happened: the age when science and engineering discovery that you could actually bloomed. From then on recipes bond two pieces of metal together gradually improved and became more with some kind of seemingly inferior refined and precise. Fokker was an polymer and that this connection was early adopter and has over 50 years strong beyond expectation. It went of experience with manufacturing even further. This primeval principle adhesively bonded aircraft structures. facilitated bonding of the epitome of Some of the early Fokker F27 progress, the very symbol of passenger aircraft, featuring wings Modernity: aluminium. with bonded wing structures are still Counterintuitive is the word here. It is in service. Metal bonding has proven only logical that many engineers to be a very reliable and flexible simply didn’t believe that a treacly technique for metal part assembly. The thin-walled nature of metal Sample to demonstrate structures turns bonding into an bonding potential excellent construction method, even to the extent to which bonding more thin layers of aluminium with multiple bond lines is an attractive concept to gain quality and save weight, when compared to just metal. Metal bonding is trustworthy far beyond reasonable doubt and it is destined to develop further. Gradually new advantages of metal bonding, concerning design, production, operation, damage resistance and tolerance, have indeed been discovered. The first is bond strength itself. A bonded lap shear joint between two metal sheets can be configured in such a way that, against all odds, over-stressing will cause the metal adherents to fail, and Gulfstream G650 bonded fuselage panel not the adhesive. An even more on aluminium sheets bonded convincing feature emerges when a together with glass-reinforced epoxy stack of thin adhered metal sheet is layer is used as skin material for a used in a structure instead of a large part of the A380 fuselage. As a single thick plate. Adhesive layers consequence the Glare part of the act as effective crack stoppers. They Airbus A380 fuselage is certified to do not allow cracks to grow all the need no inspection at all in 20,000 way through the stack, thereby flights. If you want fatigue offering a very effective way of resistance bonding is the way to go. designing damage tolerant skin. Metal Bonding and Metal Fibre Similarly damage tolerance is much Laminates are an important building better served by building up plate block for future aircraft. thickness with adhesively bonded doublers than by etching or milling thick plates. Fibre reinforcement of adhesive layers enhances damage tolerance of bonded stack of sheets even further. When cracks occur in the metal sheet, the fibres will contain the crack opening and considerably reduce crack growth rate. Fokker applies this principle in its ‘Fibre The major part of the Airbus A380 Metal Laminates’ Key Technology. fuselage consists of Glare panels, Glare, a fibre metal laminate based which require no inspection Airframe future The development of airplane manufacturing is an evolution of beliefs, fed by a steady increase in factual knowledge. The first airplanes were made pragmatically, merely to make them function, from materials that were easy to work and readily at hand: wood, rope, linen, a few steel bits. Then times got modern and with that the belief in the potential of metals grew quickly. Before long riveted aluminium became the technology to put your money on. It gained the bias of belief. Because of this from the 1940s onwards almost every airplane is designed as a riveted aluminium structural concept. The birth of metal bonding happened materials, manufacturing and almost simultaneously with the architecture for each part and for upcoming belief in metal structures, every assembly, all to best serve the but was not readily accepted, for lack customer. Metal bonded structures of trust. It took a while, but now we are a strong option. clearly have arrived in an episode of Fibre metal laminates are a good recognition of the full potential of example of creating such a balanced combining different materials in solution, in which the engineer is structural design. Increasing neither forced to resort to one type of knowledge and experience in material, nor to a particular aluminium and composites: that is composite. Engineers can be perfect what inspires Fokker. No single tailors. Their domain is where material is perfect in every sense. structure and material merge and Finding the right balance is what where material therefore becomes matters. The ultimate solution is not subject to design and engineering one particular substance, but rather a rather than to choice. way of thinking. Every design In this way changing context and question has a different context and continuously increasing knowledge requires to be answered with an determine the outcome of design Cross section of future BWB ‘Clean Era’ optimised set of properties that solutions. It implies that all options (TU Delft, Zeger van der Voet and belong to a combination of certain must be kept open, sometimes until François Geuskens) materials. The proper approach is to the last minute. Timing and planning select the best combination of can determine decision outcomes. Monolithic aluminium, or carbon fibres with epoxy resin, or aluminium adhesively bonded to titanium? Thermoplastic PPS? Bioplastics? There is no fixed answer. That is the essence of innovation. Laser projection indicating the boundary of the bond film to be applied on aluminium and glass film during lay-up Adhesive past Norman de Bruyne, an English physicist with a British mother and a Dutch father, invented metal bonding and created the first man made adhesives. The idea to develop glue for metals did not appear out of the blue. An idea needs food for thought to ripen and subsequently reveal itself as a new opportunity. One thing is needed before it can lead to another. De Bruyne founded Aero Research balsa wood. It was named Redux. The Ltd to develop new solutions for word sounds chemical, but it simply is airplanes. He created a wood an abbreviation of REsearch at adhesive in which the chief engineer DUXford. To this day the brand name of De Havilland got quite interested. is in use, also for modern epoxy Together they experimented with a adhesives. The company later sandwich structure that involved a introduced the first film adhesive. In balsa core. This became one of the 1939 De Bruyne presented Gordon structural principles in the Mosquito Aerolite, a laminate of flax roving a very successful fighter aircraft and and paper soaked with phenolic in fact an early ‘composite’ aircraft. resin. Interestingly he originally Its basic airframe structure consisted wanted to use a fine fabric woven of wooden elements glued together. from glass fibres instead of flax, but Then a new phenolic adhesive was the American glass producer didn’t developed to bond aluminium to want to cooperate: he expected structural failure. Failure in played an important role in the judgement is what he got. Glass wing and fuselage structure, but fibre reinforcement is everywhere design flaws in the overall detail now. After the war Aero Research design of the aircraft unfortunately became quite successful, producing overshadowed the excellent vast quantities of adhesive for wood performance of the bonded joints, laminate production. The Swiss slowing down the proliferation of chemical giant CIBA bought the the metal bonding technology. As company. far as bonding connections were The first aircraft producers to take concerned: they remained intact for up use of adhesives for carrying years on end and contributed to the structures were English. De legendary durability status of Redux Striking similarity between De Havilland daringly developed the 775 adhesive. Havilland Mosquito production in Comet, the first passenger jet with a wood, in the1940’s, and current panel pressurised fuselage. Adhesives assembly at Fokker Aerostructures Early adopter Rob Schliekelmann, one of the visionaries of Fokker, adopted bonding. It became one of the Key Technologies of the company. He recognised the main advantages of more efficient production, improved fatigue resistance and better distribution of forces from the very beginning. His true understanding of the technique’s nature readily led Fokker customers to accept adhesive bonding. The extensive use of bonding made which basic skin, doublers and the Fokker F27 Friendship (1955) and stiffeners are assembled by adhesive its upgrade the Fokker 50 very bonding have become a Fokker respected successors of aircraft like product-technology combination that the DC-3 ‘Dakota’. They were a huge Fokker marketed successfully as a tier economic success. This workhorse is one supplier to many of its customers still being operated in various regions ever since. of the world, often under harsh The Fokker adhesive bonding conditions, which is excellent technology has been and still is evidence of the concept’s durability continuously improving in every and reliability. Obviously adhesive respect to meet higher demands on bonding was applied in the Fokker jet technical and economic performance. aircraft as well, starting with the F-28 The initial application of phenolic Fellowship in 1967 and its successors adhesive as a two-component system the Fokker 100 and Fokker 70 twin was cumbersome.