AdamHarms’s post

Proliferation of Propellers Drives CFRP Blade Production

In the last few years, thanks to climate-neutrality targets and also the emergence of advanced air mobility (AAM), aerospace has seen a surge in battery, hydrogen fuel cell and electric propulsion. With a more efficient “fuel” sources comes the need for lighter, more efficient aviation designs, composite propellers becoming a clear contender to meet these objectives. In a 2022 editorial discussing propeller blades, @CompositesWorld brand vice president Jeff Sloan (@sloan_jeff) did some quick math regarding the potential demand for composite propellers for AAM alone: 60,900 composite blades (not including spares) per year. “And that’s just for the initial entry into service,” Sloan notes. “If AAM expands as the OEMs hope and annual shipsets reach the thousands, demand for composite blades will quickly approach half a million.” When considering aviation outside of AAM, this number become even bigger. Read More: compositesworld.com/...

On the radar: Proliferation of propellers drives CFRP blade production

As propulsion efficiency advances, so too do general aviation and AAM aircraft designs to account for additional efficiency targets.

Iain Montgomery@IainMontgomery 2y

This prompted two thoughts: Firstly, a half million propellers is quite a lot of carbon fiber, where is all this new volume going to come from? If the vehicles and the blades are driving this kind of growth, I hope the CF manufacturers and the pre preggers are building the plant and equipment to cover these type of products. Secondly, there has also been a lot of glass fiber used in these products in the past for things like higher impact strength for leading edges if nothing else.

Adam Harms@AdamHarms 2y

Toray just announced new capacity but my feeling is much of this is already being allocated to support the proliferation of hydrogen vessels.