29-Mar-17 As airlines seek the opportunity to reduce weight, differentiate their brands, minimize costs and enhance their customers’ flying experiences, they look for versatile materials, creative design options and global support from suppliers who understand these desired outcomes.
At the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, SABIC will showcase a number of new and inspiring offerings that can help aircraft customers meet regulatory requirements and OEM standards, enhance safety and sustainability, and optimize the passenger experience. These offerings include a range of high performance engineering thermoplastics in a number of forms – resin, sheet, film and foam – that are compatible with a range of processing techniques such as injection molding, thermoforming, and additive and composite manufacturing.
SABIC is introducing a fourth grade of ULTEM foam, called ULTEM XP050, as a complement to its ULTEM foam series. This latest addition is lighter than ever, at a weight of just 50 kg/m3 (3.1 lb/ft3). The new grade can be considered as a core for sandwich construction, as it is compatible with thermosets and metal laminates. Potential uses include ceiling panels, sidewalls, storage bins and other applications where lightweight, compliant structures are needed. The ULTEM XP050 foam meets OSU <55/55 and is available in thicknesses from 3 mm to 30 mm.
New on the SABIC’s stand is the Digital Design Lab, a prototype of a digital capability that can help enable designers explore four different design themes, with functionality to apply various trends in color, materials, textures and finishes utilizing swatches of SABIC aircraft-compliant materials in a virtual design environment. “We are looking forward to sharing our design tool concept with attendees at the show – particularly aircraft interior designers – in order to get their feedback as we move forward in developing tools that will help designers achieve their objectives,” Lori said. The capabilities of SABIC’s aircraft-specific materials can further inspire designers to take bold leaps in their thinking, while also having full confidence in the “fly-ability” of their designs from a compliance perspective. “We want designers to have a tool that helps them to make color, material, and finish decisions more quickly and easily, so their feedback will be a critical component for the next stage of development ” Lori added.
Featured innovative customer solutions at SABIC Booth:
