Toray Advanced Composites, a global leader in high-performance composite materials, announced it has signed a long-term supply agreement (LTA) with Airborne Aerospace B.V. to provide advanced composite materials for the production of solar array substrates for mega-constellation satellites.
With over four decades of space heritage and in-flight, mission critical reliability, Toray’s space qualified epoxy-based, carbon fibre-reinforced materials will be manufactured and supplied from Toray Advanced Composites’ European Centre of Excellence for thermoset systems in Langley Mill, UK, and used by Airborne in the manufacture of the solar array substrates and yoke panels.
Produced to tight tolerances on fibre areal weight, resin content and slit width, the high-performance materials from Toray will be supplied in 6-inch (15cm) wide uni-directional prepreg tape format, enabling the efficiencies needed for the new space age, through high-volume production using Airborne’s robotic Automated Tape Laying (ATL) technology, specifically developed for space applications.
-
-
16 July 2025
