Teijin Limited has qualified its carbon fibre and Polyether ether ketone (PEEK) based materials Tenax ThermoPlastic Woven Fabric (TPWF) and Tenax ThermoPlastic Consolidated Laminate (TPCL) with the National Center for Advanced Materials Performance (NCAMP).

This is the first NCAMP qualification of a carbon fabric reinforced thermoplastic composite material. It is also the first NCAMP qualification of pre-consolidated laminates, which can be used for rapid thermoforming of stamped structural components.

This qualification makes PEEK carbon fabric and consolidated laminate materials technology accessible to a much larger range of OEMs, tier one and tier two suppliers. Manufacturers can use the public NCAMP database to demonstrate equivalency and gain FAA certification at lower cost than qualifying materials themselves. The company says that this will be of interest for a wide variety of OEMs which are considering formed shapes with thermoplastic fabric and stamped forms like clips and brackets. Thermoplastic composites are attractive for the growing Urban Air Mobility market and traditional commercial aerospace sectors considering the benefits thermoplastics offer: High build rates, improved crack resistance, melt processing, increased opportunities for recycling, room temp storage and shelf life measured in years.

Tenax TPWF is a woven carbon fibre fabric coated with a thermoplastic polymer and Tenax TPCL are completely impregnated, and consolidated sheets made of several layers of Tenax TPWF.

The qualified product is based on woven Tenax high strength carbon fibre and Vestakeep polyetheretherketone (PEEK) polymer from Evonik Industries AG, which achieves high heat, impact and fatigue resistance. Cost reduction is achieved through rapid moulding processes allowing improved component manufacturing efficiency. This material is suited for large-scale production of aerospace structural components with high performance requirements.

In order to further support the introduction of this technology, Teijin created a material card of this specific material which is used for process simulation using Aniform software. This will help part makers and OEM optimise the thermoforming process in order to obtain all benefits of this type of material within a short time and low cost for the process setup.