Countries across the world are focusing on expanding their aircraft fleet, owing to the surging number of air passengers. To cater to a wide passenger base, airline companies, both public and private, are increasingly adopting fuel-efficient and cost-effective aircrafts. This is fueling the demand for carbon fiber composites in aircraft manufacturing, as they are lightweight and exhibit exceptional tensile strength and high stiffness and help aircraft manufacturers reduce the weight of the aircraft.
Oxford Performance Materials is a manufacturer of biomedical parts, industrial parts, and biomedical polymers. The acquisition of asset included manufacturing process technology, equipment, and intellectual property related to the A&D operations of Oxford Performance Materials in Connecticut, U.S. Carbon fiber, aramid fiber, and glass fiber aerospace composites produced by the aforementioned companies are used in the manufacturing of commercial aircrafts, military aircrafts, civil helicopters, and business and general aviation aircrafts.
The composites used in these aircrafts are usually made of thermostat resins, due to their exceptional mechanical strength, low weight, and excellent corrosion resistance. Additionally, thermostat resins impart high tensile strength and stiffness to aircraft components, due to which they are preferred over thermoplastic resins. Geographically, North America utilized the highest volume of aerospace composites in the recent past, owing to the presence of a large base of aircraft manufacturers in the region.
In the coming years, North America and Europe will dominate the aerospace composites market, due to the presence of several well-established market players and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and the soaring demand for reducing the overall weight of aircrafts in the regions. Furthermore, Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Latin America (LATAM) are also expected to use a considerable volume of such composites in the upcoming years, due to the burgeoning demand for commercial aircrafts in India, China, and Brazil.
On the other hand, the Middle East and African (MEA) region is expected to adopt aerospace composites at the highest rate in the foreseeable future. This is primarily owed to the rising focus on economic diversification in the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia. As a part of their economic diversification plans, these nations are rapidly shifting their economic reliance from the oil and gas industry to non-oil-based sectors, such as the aerospace sector.
Thus, the escalating number of air passengers and an increasing shift from the autoclave process to the OOA process will augment the production of aerospace composites in the immediate future.
