Are there ways to reduce the cost of autoclave production?
The answer is yes!
Effort has been put in researches in order to reduce the cost of autoclave production in various ways, below listed a few topics including:
ZERO wastage of resin in prepreg during curing
Using mold materials with lower specific heat capacity in order to speed up the curing process
Maximizing number of parts into the autoclave at same time
All these can effectively promoted the reduction of manufacturing costs using the autoclave production method.
Taking a composite structural component of a certain aircraft as an example, for every 1kg of composite structural components produced, manufacturing costs can be saved by over $1200.
If prepreg laying automation can be achieved for large components, the
production efficiency will be significantly improved, and manufacturing costs will decrease drastically. In this case, it is not making any sense to claim autoclave is a costly production method. After more than 30 years of technological development, the completeness and maturity of this forming method undoubtedly have important significance for the application of large aircraft structural composite materials into fast-moving props.
