Specialists from Hexcel’s carbon fibres, reinforcements, prepregs, honeycomb and engineered core groups will be present to speak with attendees about the company’s wide variety of products and offerings.

New resin

Hexcel will be promoting its new RTM resin, HexFlow RTM230 ST, designed to perform well at high temperatures with superior toughness and exhibit excellent high rate impact resistance.

HexFlow RTM230 ST resin combines high in-plane and impact performance with good long term thermal stability, but is also easy to process, with a 45-minute injection window, the company reports.

This new resin is said to demonstrate outstanding resistance to aggressive fluids, including commonly used solvents and aviation fuel. The HexFlow RTM230 ST resin is particularly suited for engine components such as fan blades and fan cases, spacers and outlet guide vanes.

Dry carbon fibre reinforcements

Hexcel will also be promoting its award-winning HiTape dry carbon fibre reinforcements, which are designed for the automated manufacture of preforms at very high deposition rates.

The preforms can then be infused with Hexcel’s RTM6 resin for a cost-efficient out-of-autoclave process for the manufacture of next generation aircraft structures. Parts produced with HiTape reinforcements and Hexcel’s HexFlow infusion resins can be up to 30mm thick with a 58% to 60% fibre volume content, resulting in mechanical properties that are as high as those achieved with primary structure prepregs.

High modulus fibre

Since Hexcel launched its HexTow HM63 carbon fibre in 2014, this high modulus fibre has been quickly adopted by customers and is already in multi-lot qualification with major space and aerospace OEMs, the company reports.

HexTow HM63 has the highest tensile strength of any high modulus fibre and provides outstanding translation of fibre properties in a composite, including superior interlaminar shear and compression shear strength, according to the manufacturer.

The product is ideal for applications, such as space, UAV, commercial aerospace, helicopters and satellites. It is also said to meet the special requirements for premium sports and recreation applications such as Formula 1, marine, bicycles, fishing rods and other industrial applications.

www.hexcel.com