Capabilities

Composites Facility

The activities in the Composite Facility range from the manufacture and assembly of complex to that of simple composite parts.

The Composite Facility manpower component comprises ± 60 people, with dedicated teams on hand to manufacture everything from small-scale composites to large structures. Personnel are expertly trained in manufacturing and assembly utilising glass fibre, Kevlar, and pre-preg carbon materials, as well as metal bonding (fixing of metallic parts to composite structures). Staff have been trained with regard to procedures and technologies used. This ensures that Denel Aerostructures remains at the cutting edge in terms of latest technologies in composite production. The facility has Class 8.5 rated clean rooms, as well as Nadcap approval.

Composites assembly performed at the facility typically includes that of cowlings, fairings, as well as that of Airbus composite panels. Besides its new autoclaves (13m x 3m) Denel Aerostructures has also invested in a 5-axis CMS profiling machine that caters for parts up to 16m in size.

CMS Routers

The CMS has two independent spindle heads with a maximum speed of 22000rpm. The table envelope includes a maximum length of 18m x 3.8m x 1.8m.

Autoclave

Operating pressure range up to 10 bar at 200ºC.

Composite Capability

• Clean Rooms: 2
• Sizes: 471m2 Class 7 and 464m2 Class 8

Main Production Equipment

Below please see quantities indicated for our main production equipment:

• Surface Treatment Plant: 1
• Automatic Ply Cutters: 2
• NDT Ultrasonic and X–ray: 1
• Metronor Measuring Equipment: 1
• Paint Shop: 1
• A&C Scanners : 2

Autoclave Specifications