Carbon tooling

Multiplast designed and fabricated female carbon moulds for Airbus, in order to test new processes for the fabrication of keel beam parts for Airbus A350 development.

Characteristics:

• Carbon mould / epoxy for autoclave cures at 180°C,
• Dimensions of 10m x 1.5m,
• Tolerance of ± 0.2mm with repeated machining to validate different geometries,
• Vacuum system integrated into the tooling.

Multiplast has also produced a milled carbon mould for a series of coastal radars (Coast Watcher 100).

The shape tolerance demands imposed by Thales for these antenna radars led Multiplast to produce a 4.5m wide milled carbon mould. This mould had already been subjected to more than 40 cures within tolerances to 1/10th of a millimetre.

A low thermal expansion coefficient carbon was chosen for this particular utilisation.