Abstract
Toray commenced the world's first commercial production of PAN-based carbon fiber in 1971 and have provided various fibers, prepregs and the composites for aircraft, automotive, sport, civil and industrial applications. From the late 2000s, many aircraft such as A380 and B787 have been drawn attention due to the extensive implementation of CFRP, however this application can be traced back to the production of the B777 tail wing in the early-90s. Conventional CFRP have advantages such as high strength, lightweight, anti-corrosive properties, however due to the brittle characteristics, the concern of impact loading narrowed its application primarily to secondary structures in the 80s. Toray developed high strength-medium modulus carbon fiber, T800H and toughened interlayer prepreg, which dramatically increased the composite properties of compression after impact (CAI), achieving the adoption to B777. Currently, aircraft structures employ mainly prepeg autoclave molding techniques, however from the perspective of increasing the build-up ratio and reducing the cost, Toray is developing a vacuum resin transfer molding (Va-RTM) method on MRJ tail wing collaborated with MHI. The RTM process is an in-house developed technology commenced in the 90s and is applied to the MRJ project employing Va-RTM and have recently established a joint venture agreement with Daimler for mass produced automotive parts utilizing a high cycle RTM process. This presentation will contain the history of CFRP adaptation in aircraft and automotive applications with the progress of Toray's R&D, and the review of approaches and possibilities for new applications.
