TenCate Advanced Composites
A lighter aircraft, inside and outside Safety and sustainability are worldwide trends which TenCate Advanced Composites also focuses on. The company produces materials that can make the difference.
Several Dutch aerospace companies and knowledge institutions are working together with Airbus in the TAPAS consortium to develop aircraft fuselage, wing and tail sections using thermoplastic composites. This fruitful cooperation of Fokker Aerostructures and TenCate Advanced Composites with their long time customer Airbus and the other partners was started in 2010 and this new phase will continue until 2017. Thermoplastic composite is an advanced material which is 15 per cent lighter than traditional aircraft materials. The material stands out thanks to more efficient processing in production, lower costs for structural parts and high fire safety levels. This composite is very strong, lightweight and contributes to more sustainable aviation, because thanks to this material, aircraft construction can be increasingly lighter. This can reduce the use of fuel, increase the range or increase the load capacity.
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TenCate not only thinks about the exterior of an aircraft, but also about a lighter interior. The company won a prestigious prize at the JEC trade fair in Paris in March for its lightweight aircraft seat. The Dutch minister for Economic Affairs Henk Kamp presented the prize. The so-called Titanium Seat is a product created by five companies including TenCate. According to TenCate’s director Frank Meurs, the innovative seat is the most efficient economy-class seat for the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737. “By using composite rather than aluminium or other metals, we save on weight.This seat makes it possible to save up to € 400,000 in fuel per year per aircraft.” Harm Albers, sales manager at TenCate, sees many more possibilities. “Aircraft trolleys, seats, engines. The lighter the materials, the better. And it’s just like in sports: each time, records are broken.”
THE E X P E R TI S E OF E X C E LLE NC E