As a result of this project, the production of aerostructures in carbon fibre and composites at Terma in Grenaa will be automated. According to Terma, this will strengthen the company's international competitiveness.

Terma initiates this project with support from RoboTool, University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Aalborg University (AAU), Technical University of Denmark (DTU), and the Dutch NLR – Netherlands Aerospace Centre.

Automated production technology

"One of our biggest challenges in the production of aerostructures in carbon fibre is that a large part of the manufacturing process is manual," explained Jesper Freltoft, Vice President, Manufacturing Engineering at Terma Aerostructures in Grenaa. Terma manufactures a number of parts in carbon fibre and composites for the U.S. F-35 fighter aircraft.

"With support from the Innovation Fund Denmark (12.8 MDKK), we will establish a technology centre, where a consortium over the next three years will test a range of technologies that are necessary to develop robots and automated production technology,” said Jesper Freltoft.

“I expect that we can achieve a significant reduction in the total production time in large parts of our current production. This will truly strengthen Terma’s international competitiveness in the production of aerostructures.”

Maintaining competitiveness

Advanced composite materials are used in more and more products and used in a variety of industries. By remaining at the forefront of production technology, Danish companies can ensure a valuable competitive edge.

The six members of the consortium contribute with a test setup (RoboTool), a vision system for quality assurance (DTU), programming plus project administration (SDU), simulation and material models (AAU), and mechanics (NLR). Terma is responsible for managing the project and provides facilities for building a full-scale test center.

www.terma.com