The aerospace industry pursues two goals simultaneously: decreasing the weight of the structure while maintaining/increasing the safety of the structures.
Composite materials are one of the key choices for decreasing the weight of the structure. The drawback, however, is the insulating (non-conductive) behavior of these materials. To overcome this limitation, it is common to add a conductive mesh inside the structure. This mesh is heavy, though, and adds much to the final weight of the aircraft.
An alternative is making the whole structure conductive because the antistatic properties are a part of the whole equation of achieving significant charge dissipation in the structure. This can be achieved by integrating CNTs into the structures through Nanocyl’s Epocyl™ products.
To simultaneously maintain/increase the safety of the structures, it is necessary to increase the lifespan and the durability of the composite materials. For this reason, Nanocyl developed the Epocyl™-NC MY family of products. They are built on tetrafunctional grades of epoxy resins, and offer unmatched mechanical properties for aerospace projects. And by improving the G1c toughness of these high performance composites, designers and engineers can save a tremendous amount of weight on the corresponding structures where the composites are used.
Nanocyl’s industry-leading Epocyl™ products offer the aerospace industry new solutions for decreasing the weight of structures while increasing their safety. A major advantage is the ease of integrating Epocyl™ into various formulations while having a minimal influence on the viscosity of the formulations. This is key to processes like resin transfer molding (RTM).
Similarly, Epocyl™ offers ease of integration and minimal influence on the viscosity of hot-melt prepreg formulations. Additionally, final formulations preserve their inherent properties like glass transition temperature (Tg) with much improved mechanical performance.
