A CONSORTIUM OF COMPLEMENTARY EXPERTISE

Evektor is an international company and belongs among the leading development and manufacturing companies which are active in the aircraft industry of the Czech Republic. Besides aviation, Evektor has extensive development activities in the area of automotive and mechanical engineering industry. Evektor company was founded in 1991 and since 1992 it has been active in the area of development and design of aircraft. Historically, Evektor continues in traditions of Aerotechnik CZ company which became part of Evektor in 1996 and which was founded in 1970, and during its existence it manufactured, among others, almost 200 L-13 Vivat airplanes.

TWI will be the coordinator of the project, leading WP9. It will also champion the application of the developed technology on a dedicated sizing tool in WP6. It will offer its expertise and infrastructure to realise the project’s coupons and demonstrators, leading WP7. TWI will champion the dissemination and exploitation activities in WP8. TWI’s Intellectual Property team will take advantage of the company’s unique position to disseminate project’s technology directly to its industrial members as well as to external stakeholders. TWI will be supporting the administrative tasks of the project with a dedicated team.

Cranfield University is leading WP2 and WP4 with emphasis on mechanical design of the hybrid (tufting) joints and modelling of mechanical performance and will also carry out the manufacturing of the final demonstrator in WP7. Cranfield University will be responsible for the finalisation of technical specifications in WP1 and deal with the relevant modelling activities in WP3, WP4 and WP5. Cranfield has been developing relevant simulation models for over two decades and has had significant contributions in developments that were implemented in commercial software. The Centre has led/is leading simulation activities in a number of EU (INFUCOMP, PULAERO, SimCoDeQ, FLEX) and national projects (CIMCOMP, RPOACM). The organisational lead has often been invited to deliver seminars and training workshops on simulation using commercial software packages and material models developed in the Centre have been implemented in commercial finite element codes such as PAM-RTM. The Centre is leading internationally the topic of through thickness reinforcement with a focus on tufting and of stochastic simulation of composites through its involvement in national projects Future Composites Manufacturing Hub, CIMCOMP and RPOACM and Clean sky Projects SimCoDeQ and FLEX.

Within the project, Brunel University will lead electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) modelling and interface modelling for the reference demonstrator in WP3. It will consider theoretical as well as practical aspects of the issue and will propose and design appropriate hardware concepts for the technical feasibility assessment for the design of the innovative demonstrator leading WP5. In addition, Brunel University will be leading coupled mechanical and EMC simulations in WP2 and WP4. The aforementioned activities will be performed by the industrial innovation research centre of Brunel University London named as Brunel Composites Centre (BCC). BCC develops innovative methods for composites processing/joining across Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) 1-6. The core areas of this research are microwave heating in composites production, joining of composites without mechanical fastening, adhesive bonding, coatings for composites, composites-metal joints, novel processing of composites and interface phenomena at composite surfaces.