“Automated Repair Patch Production for Composites” project has been completed!

ARP2 project which was a dual collaboration of Sabanci University in Turkey and RWTH Aachen University in Germany has been completed (June 2017-2020) and its final report is accepted.

The project provided a rich insight in CFRP repair in accordance with Structural Repair Guidelines and allowed us to experience the repair of primary and secondary components of aircraft in their real implementation environment thanks to Turkish Airlines Technic, in Sabiha Gokcen Airport area. Along with the project 1 undergraduate intern, 1 undergraduate student, 2 graduate interns, 1 MSc student gained hands-on experience on composite repair, 2 MSc. students graduated within the scope of this project, 2 PhD students actively participated in nanomaterial functionalization  and 3 postdocs participated in various work packages. A pilot-scale nano-integration unit was constructed and actively used for providing master batch for the nano-modified carbon fibre reinforced thermoset prepreg production line of Kordsa A.S. After the pandemic, it was possible to transfer this know-how to the Sabanci University Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Application and Research Center (SU IMC) – Composite Technologies Center of Excellence (CTCE), for the completion of aircraft repair procedures in the lab infrastructures.

Further, significant efforts were given to automatize the ply-by-ply engraving of the CFRPs with KUKA robot at the SU IMC research center with high precision with limited time constraints, which was also performed by RWTH Aachen University simultaneously.

The corresponding research articles are being prepared for publication for further exploitation of the results to the scientists, researchers and other end-users. Many thanks to our researchers, students, our collaborators Kordsa A.S. and its project leaders, Turkish Technic and aircraft structural repair unit leader, atelier leaders and technicians; and the administrative-technical staff at the SU IMC CTCE for their efforts, valuable recommendations and patience.

November 2020