Hexcel is exhibiting at the Aero India show for the fifth time, continuing to support customers in the Indian subcontinent and throughout Asia. This year’s show takes place in Bangalore from February 14-18, 2017 (Stand B 4.1b-Hall B) to promote a range of carbon fibers and composites that are benefiting Indian aerospace manufacturers for commercial aircraft, helicopters and space programs.
Hexcel has supplied carbon and glass fiber fabrics, prepregs, honeycombs and adhesives to Indian aerospace companies for over 26 years, including Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), National Aerospace Lab (NAL), Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO), Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre(VSSC) and TATA Advanced Materials.
On the Hexcel booth at Aero India visitors will see a section of a composite beam demonstrator
manufactured by hot forming from Hexcel’s HexPly® M21 UD carbon fiber prepreg.
Hexcel’s HexPly® M21E/IMA prepreg is used by TATA Advanced Materials to make spars and composite panels for the Airbus A350 XWB. The A350 XWB is the first Airbus to have a structure that is over 50% composites and Hexcel is supplying the carbon fiber prepreg for all of the A350 XWB primary structures.
Hexcel’s High Strength and Intermediate Modulus carbon fiber range has been augmented by the launch of HexTow® HM63, a High Modulus carbon fiber that has the highest tensile strength of any existing HM fiber. HexTow® HM63 provides outstanding translation of fiber properties in a composite, including superior inter-laminar shear and compression shear strength. HexTow® HM63 is therefore ideal for any high stiffness and strength-critical applications including space, satellites, UAV, commercial aerospace and helicopters.

Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM) is a composite manufacturing process that allows high quality components to be produced, with good surface quality, without using autoclaves. Hexcel has recently launched HexFlow® RTM6-2 to provide the industry with a bi-component version of its highly successful RTM6 resin, making it easier to transport by air or sea outside Europe. With the same chemical composition as RTM6, HexFlow® RTM6-2 provides the same high mechanical properties from a short cure cycle, including high Tg. An added advantage is that HexFlow® RTM6-2 can be stored at +5°C for 12 months.
Hexcel developed HiTape® advanced dry carbon fiber reinforcements for the automated manufacture of preforms at very high deposition rates. The preforms are infused with Hexcel’s RTM6 epoxy resin in a cost-efficient out of autoclave process. The cured structures can be up to 30mm thick and have a fiber volume content up to 60%, allowing them to achieve mechanical properties that are as high as those obtained with primary structure prepregs. A video on the Hexcel stand will show the rapid lay-up of preforms for aerospace structures using the HiTape® process.