NCCEF Overview Niall Macfadyen

Summary Introduction to Aerospace in the Northwest Overview of NCCEF capabilities Overview of Materials test and evaluation unit Questions

Aerospace in the Northwest Major Companies operate in the area –BAE –Airbus –Rolls Royce Aerospace Revenue for the region is approximately $10Bn The Aerospace supply chain in the region employs over 20,000 people – 25% of UK total

University of Manchester One of the largest single Campus Universities in Europe 35,000 students, of whom 25% are Post Graduate 11,700 employees, 50% academic.

UoM School of Materials Largest single materials grouping of any European University 750 students and 60 academic staff Three focus areas –Materials Science –Textiles and Paper –Corrosion and Protection

NCCEF Opens January 2010 –NADCAP Accredited testing laboratory –Full range of mechanical and physical testing equipment and non-destructive evaluation facilities Remit: to work with companies in the supply chain to help them:- –Understand in service performance, including failures –Make the transition from metals to composites –Understand composite behaviour –Qualify parts for aerospace and other duties –Assess new composite materials and processes –Understand and evaluate 3D composite structures

Part of a National Network The NCCEF is a fully independent centre, free to work with all major primes and Tier 1, 2 suppliers. NCCEF is a division of the Northwest composites centre, which is a consortium of the Universities of Manchester, Liverpool, Bolton and Lancaster

We are members of the Northwest Aerospace Alliance

NCCEF Highlights European Centre for Quickstep research (advanced out of autoclave processing) Largest and best equipped composites textile research unit in Europe (with manufacturing capabilities) Most comprehensive suite of damage evaluation facilities ( including £2.8 million X-ray CT)

ROLE of NCCEF To Support the local supply chain in developing their businesses in the area of composites –Consultancy –Tech Transfer (with NCN) –Qualification of materials and parts To develop new technology that can diffuse out into the supply chain –R and D –KTP’s To provide a bridge between the pure academic research undertaken in the northwest and industry and between industry and the science base. –Technology programme, EU programmes To train the next generation of technically competent engineers for the Composites industry –MSc’s and PhDs

Processing – What is the NCCEF doing to help the supply chain? Focus of NCCEF – out of autoclave processing –Microwave curing –Quickstep –Vacuum infusion/RTM

Textiles – What is the NCCEF doing to help the supply chain? The University of Manchester hosts the largest textile research Centre in Europe A major initiative is now to develop textiles for aerospace (and other) composite applications: –Braiding –2D and now 3D weaving of flat fabrics –Weaving of 3D shapes –Fibre placement –Mechanics of dry fibre assemblies

Design Database – to help the supply chain reduce development time

NCCEF - Full suite of Mechanical Testing Machines/Fixtures 300kN quasi-static test frames 100kn fatigue frames Instrumented impact Ballistic impact All with environmental chambers, associated conditioning, test fixtures for ASTM/ISO etc All calibrated and to be accredited to ISO/ NADCAMP Backed up with physical characterisation: DSC, DTA, TGA, electron microscopy

NCCEF - NDT capacity Immersion C-Scan (large and small) UT- phased C-scan Eddy Current Digital radiography –(£2.5 million x-ray tomography facility) Ultrasonic bond tester Laser Shearography Thermoscope Courtesy X-tech

Materials Testing and Analysis Unit Main activity – providing XRD residual stress services ISO accredited laboratory

Measuring Residual Stress using XRD High spatial resolution – 1mm or so by a few microns depth Used on polycrystalline (reasonably fine- grained) materials, metallic or ceramic Gauge volume depth is very shallow – we assume a free surface with only 2-D stresses

Residual stress depth profile from peening

Proto XRD – focussing on sample

XRD of awkward locations

On-site XRD of large samples

Thank You! Questions?