JEC Composites Innovation Award 2023: Cetim, winner of the ʺAerospace – Processʺ category with its SPIDE TP® process

After the exceptional 2022 edition, JEC WORLD, the leading international trade show dedicated to composite materials, their manufacturing technologies and application markets, will take place in Paris from April 25-27, 2023. As each year, the JEC Composites Innovation Awards celebrate successful projects and cooperation between players of the composites industry. The 2023 winners have been announced on March 2nd during a dedicated ceremony accessible on replay on the JEC Group’s web site. Cetim is proud to be part of the Winner of this new edition, in the section “Aerospace – process”.

An Innovative Krueger Flap in thermoplastic composite, manufactured with Cetim’s SPIDE TP® Manufactured with Cetim’s SPIDE TP®, an in-situ thermoplastic consolidation process, in partnership with SONACA SA, Loiretech, AFPT and ETIM, this Krueger Flap has a complex shape. It outperforms existing solutions in terms of industrial performance, allowing for higher production rates, better process stability, improved product quality and recyclability at the end of its life.

The part, made with PAEK/FC raw materials, is designed in several components: 3 cells for resistant hollow bodies and a skin to fix the whole components and obtain the aero profile. Cetim’s laser tape winding process, SPIDE TP®, based on AFPT technology and using Loiretech’s innovative heating tools, meets the mechanical and weight challenges required by SONACA (topic manager).

Key benefits of the SPIDE TP® innovative process:

• In-situ consolidation with a fully automated process (SPIDE TP® laser tape winding)
• Repeatability and reliability of the process
• Reduction of production costs
• Optimised product quality with improved impact resistance
• Recyclability on waste during production or at end of life.

“We are delighted to receive this prize, which rewards our R&D work on composites and the involvement of all our teams of engineers and technicians in materials, calculations, design … in the development of the field for over 40 years! It is also a nice recognition for this European project whose main objective is in phase with our everyday mission, that of contributing to the development of concrete solutions for a competitive, greener and sustainable industry,” declares Clément Callens, head of Cetim’s polymers and composites department.

Cetim had already won a JEC Composites Innovation Award in 2015 for its ʺQuilted Stratum Processʺ (QSP®) thermoforming process, in 2016 for its fast peeling machine and in 2018 for its innovative recycling line of plastic and thermoplastic composites waste (ThermoPRIME® and Thermosaïc®).

The Krueger wing has been exhibited on the “Innovation Planet” area of the JEC World trade show which was held from April 25 to 27, 2023 in Paris-Nord Villepinte.