Development Strategy for Nano-enabled fibre reinforced plastics

The scope of the project was to investigate and develop suitable strategies for the development of nano-enabled fibre reinforced plastics (neFRP) in order to produce materials tailored to the customer's needs and requirements. Within the scope of the work was also to establish a quality control system to assure that the produced products are of acceptable quality and can be integrated in functional parts for space applications. The work started with a literature review of suitable nano-enabling techniques for two manufacturing processes: autoclave and infusion-based/ RTM composite manufacturing. In parallel, a market survey was performed to identify the potential space applications where the use of such novel materials would bring benefits. Based on these, a trade-off of the techniques was performed and certain routes were identified for the company to proceed on. A computational benefit analysis validated the concept and proved the applicability of ne-FRPs in space applications.