How do you make aviation more sustainable, faster and better? Aircraft parts manufacturer GKN Fokker has been working on this issue for some time now. To accelerate this, the company has opened a new technology center in Hoogeveen.
Two thousand square meters of industrial hall has been prepared to work on new techniques in aviation. A project in which the company has invested millions. Head of the center, Arnt Offringa, proudly shows what the end result is. “It took a while, but then you also have something. We want to make strong and light parts here. Think, for example, of wings or a rudder of an aircraft. We use thermoplastic composites for that.”
That means nothing to the layman, of course, light thermoplastic synthetic composites. Offringa therefore explains it with a small experiment. In his hand he holds a piece of the special plastic. He takes out a lighter and holds the flame under the material. “After a few seconds it’s soft enough and I can bend it,” he says. “It then cools and retains its shape. We can do this as many times as needed until we have the desired shape. So we make different parts of it in our factories, for example a wing. Bolts and screws are often no longer necessary.”
With technology, the company has a significant head start worldwide. The new technology center must therefore ensure that they stay one step ahead of the competition. GKN Fokker has therefore invested a lot of money in new machines. Offringa is now moving towards one of the new acquisitions. A robot arm with a roll of plastic on it. “These are strips of the material that the robot can place very quickly one after the other at high speed. We can make full tails from them, for example.”