American Defense and Commercial Aerospace Industry Leaders, NASA, Partner on Breakthrough Lightweight Advanced Materials Testbed
The American Aerospace Materials Manufacturing Center (AAMMC) Tech Hub is quickly moving forward with plans to acquire the world’s largest and most capable thermoplastic composites press to prove medium and large aerospace parts for commercial and defense aircraft. This large press is the centerpiece to the AAMMC’s mission to establish a world-class, first-of-its kind testbed for advanced aerospace materials in the United States.
A partnership of industry and government engineers will advance high-rate manufacturing on equipment that is larger and more capable than any existing infrastructure for advanced composites manufacturing technologies. Representatives from the hub are meeting with press manufacturers this week to begin the ordering process during JEC World – the leading international composites show.
This testbed and training center will develop a class of next-generation lightweight composite parts like ribs, beams, doors, bulkheads, and stiffened skins in preparation for high-rate manufacturing techniques The Hub will advance these methods through TRL levels six through nine for defense and commercial applications.
Leading industry partners include aerospace manufacturers Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems, Collins Aerospace; materials suppliers Toray and Syensqo; and national and federal labs including NASA, Air Force Research Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) will also partner to design workforce training programs to maintain global aerospace leadership in the American Pacific Northwest.
“This Testbed will enable new American suppliers to meet the high-rate production demands for lightweight composites across the global aerospace industry and lessen our growing reliance on foreign technology and foreign manufacturing. We look forward to filling this building with equipment unlike any of its kind in the world, bringing our top industry and NASA engineers together under one roof, and ensuring the pipeline of aerospace talent stays in the Pacific Northwest,” said Maria Lusardi, spokesperson for the AAMMC.
