ZEus

ZEus demonstrates the lightweight potential of thermoplastic fiber-reinforced composites as well as hybrid metal-fiber-reinforced composites in aviation by developing innovative joining methods for load-bearing aircraft structures. By directly creating material or form-fitting bonds between the joining partners, the use of mechanical fasteners such as rivets is completely eliminated.

Motivation

The ZEus consortium pursues the primary goal of developing technological building blocks for fuselage structures of future emission-free aircraft. The focus is on sustainable, weight- and cost-efficient processes and materials. The use of thermoplastic-based materials and novel architectures for constructing aircraft structures in the civil aviation sector offers significant potential for reducing fuel consumption and emissions.

Building on previous projects such as BUSTI (Clean Sky 2, grant number 945583) and the CONTIjoin process developed therein, as well as further exploration of hybrid structure manufacturing using the HPCi^® thermal direct joining technology, these potentials are to be leveraged to achieve a higher technological maturity for aerospace production.

Aims and Procedure

In the project, the CONTIjoin process is being further developed to transition from joining simply curved shell elements to complexly curved structures. This advancement enables joining along the entire fuselage area, including regions such as the aircraft nose and tail, as well as future non-cylindrical fuselage designs. The results will ultimately be demonstrated using a full-scale geometry demonstrator. Additionally, a comprehensive characterization of CONTIjoin joints will be carried out, which can serve as a precursor for future classification in aircraft manufacturing.

The second development track focuses on reducing weight and costs in the production of seat rails. The use of the thermal direct joining process enables the connection of highly loaded load introduction points made of titanium with a lightweight yet strong thermoplastic fiber-reinforced composite profile. For this, a process for joining several running meters in one go is being developed and implemented in a seat rail demonstrator. An increase in the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) is also targeted for this process.

Innovations and Perspectives

The CONTIjoin and HPCi^® technologies open up new potential in the field of thermoplastic joining techniques that cannot be achieved with conventional methods. As a result, they make a sustainable contribution to the development of modern processes and technologies for emission-free flight in future generations. Furthermore, the advancement of these technologies toward more complex and larger assemblies enables their application in additional fields beyond aerospace.