Hexcel Corp Manufactures for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems

Hexcel Corp. (Stamford, Conn., USA) announced it has established a key partnership with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI, San Diego, Calif., US) in the development and production of carbon-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic components. These are complex structures on GA-ASI's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)/remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) systems. Larry Varholak, Vice President of Hexcel Additive Manufacturing, said: "The HexAM process produces rigid and lightweight components critical to aerospace systems. We value our collaboration with GA-ASI to develop components for UAV/RPA systems that enhance performance while reducing costs." Using HexAM technology, Hexcel and GA-ASI are producing several complex geometric components that would be expensive or impossible to manufacture using conventional composite, molding or machining methods. Hexcel notes that most applications are for inner mold line (IML), outer mold line (OML), channels and manifolds, where additive manufacturing provides design freedom for complex geometries and enables easier production processes to improve UAV performance and operation. Source: https://www.hexcel.com/News/News-Releases