Quality Control Process of Manufactured Composite Structures

The paper includes a description of the composite material used in the aviation industry. It presents the technological development of composites in terms of their use in the most important elements of the aircraft structures, such as a spar and aircraft wing sheathing, which are subjected to high loads during operation. The type of the material implemented for production was listed and the most commonly occurred incompatibilities during the carbon pre-impregnate manufacture and transport were described.

The manufacture diagram of composite elements with a polymer matrix was presented and the quality control system carried out at each mentioned stage (material storage, defrosting, cutting of dies, structure forming, polymerisation) was discussed.

The methods of non-destructive tests of carbon laminates in a polymer matrix were also listed, describing the most effective of them, i.e. a method of ultrasonic tests.

The conclusions were drawn and the development possibilities of ultrasonic tests both in terms of quality improvement and reduction of time for detecting incompatibilities in composite structures were described.