FOCEA
CYANATE ESTER IMPROVED MANUFACTURING FOR THE AERONAUTICAL SECTOR
FABRICATION OPTIMISEE CYANATE ESTER AERONAUTIQUE
RAPID, DGA – DGE Project | Grant agreement ID: 202906005
January 2020 – December 2022
The FOCEA project aims to replace structural components made from titanium and located in the hot zones of aircraft with composites. The objective is to answer the major problem of weight reduction in order to minimize environmental impact. While epoxy-carbon fibre composites are, henceforth, essential in the fabrication of most parts of current aircrafts, their low thermal resistance prevents their use in certain zones that are subjected to high temperatures (300-400°C).
Resins thermal resistance and mechanical properties
This project focuses on cyanate ester chemistry to develop these new composites. Indeed, these resins provide a high service temperature, a low water uptake and a processability close to that of the epoxies, which enables the elaboration of complex pieces by RTM. However, commercially available cyanate esters do not fulfil all the requirements expected in this project, in terms of thermal resistance and fracture toughness.
SPECIFIC POLYMERS is, therefore, implementing significant research efforts to formulate the new generation of cyanate esters that will outperform current resins, and with this aim, chemical modifications and additivation of cyanate esters with thermally stable polymers or inorganic particles are being investigated. Through this project, SPECIFIC POLYMERS is gaining strong expertise in the development of heat-resistant resins (bis-maleimides, polyimides, phthalonitriles, thermally stable thermoplastic, etc.) that can be employed in different high-performance applications.
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Our partners in FOCEA project
