Mastering forces with ease - herone
Saving weight is an effective way of making aeroplanes more efficient and sustainable. Christian Garthaus is convinced of this. "For every kilo that we make a large commercial aircraft lighter, we save around 3 tonnes of paraffin over its life cycle," calculates the lightweight construction and plastics technology engineer. "That's around 10 tonnes of CO2 - roughly the annual footprint of a German citizen."
The crux of the matter with force application
Since his time as a scientist at the Technical University of Dresden, he has been driven by the desire to start here and thus become part of the sustainable aviation of tomorrow. To this end, he has set his sights on a group of materials that are already innovative and, above all, lightweight - composite materials made from carbon fibres (CFRP). There are classic ones in which the carbon fibres are embedded in a thermosetting plastic and then cured. "This is a two-component adhesive," he explains. "You mix it together and once it has hardened, it stays in this form forever." And then there are the thermoplastic composites, which can also be remoulded later if they are heated.
Christian Garthaus has been researching these with his colleagues at the university since 2009, even then with the support of the LuFo programme, he emphasises. In 2018, he and his two co-founders then ventured into the business world. Together they founded herone GmbH. LuFo also supported him now. "At the TU, we developed a process with which we can produce thermoplastic composite profiles and then provide them with functionality," he says. Basically, these are tubes with connecting elements attached to the ends. And that is a challenge with fibre composites. "Composites are very well suited to transferring forces from A to B," explains Christian Garthaus. This enables lightweight and extremely robust pipelines, drive shafts, tension rods or struts. "The difficulty lies in transferring the forces into the component." This can be done, for example, by riveting or gluing metal connectors to the pipes. However, this not only creates additional weak points, it also increases the weight.
herone GmbH
Acquiring skills and building confidence
The thermoplastic advantage, as the lightweight construction and plastics technology engineer likes to call it, plays into the engineers' hands when it comes to solving the problem. He exploits the fact that the material can be remoulded and welded when heated. Using a type of injection moulding process, he applies the force transmission elements, such as plastic teeth, directly to the profile. He and his team have proven that it works in a laboratory system. "In our new LuFo project, we wanted to further develop our process so that we could produce the semi-finished products continuously and then inject the various functions automatically," he says. "And we wanted to prove the load-bearing capacity of the components."
It was an exciting and challenging time for the young company. With the Institute of Lightweight Engineering and Polymer Technology at TU Dresden, they had a research partner at their side. Another SME from the region, the mould manufacturer HPF, was also on board. Boeing and polymer manufacturer Victrex supported them as associated partners. The constellation was something special for Christian Garthaus.
Two SMEs and a university institute were able to acquire the expertise to manufacture innovative aerospace components here.
he says. "And we had the opportunity to work with the big players in the industry and build trust as a result." For him, this is a major advantage of the LuFo programme. After all, he knows that trust is extremely important in aviation.
As powerful as two sports cars
In the end, the collaboration paid off for everyone involved. Not only has a system for the semi-continuous production of profiles now gone into operation at herone in Dresden. The intensive tests carried out as part of the LuFo funding programme have also confirmed the robustness of the innovative components. Christian Garthaus holds a 45 mm diameter drive shaft with moulded-on force transmission elements in his hand. In the test, up to 1,450 newton metres could be transmitted, he says and is pleased. That's twice the torque of a sports car. "We are still a young and, with 18 people, quite a small company," he says. "Without LuFo, we wouldn't have had the chance to develop a topic at such a low technology readiness level one step higher on our own."
Text: Kai Dürfeld
Projektträger Luftfahrtforschung
Contact:
herone GmbH
Dr. Christian Garthaus
E-Mail: christian.garthaus@herone.de
Telephone: +49 174 9190 621
www.herone.de