Industrial application for composite materials
Although they were originally developed to improve the performance and reliability of solid rocket motors, thermostructural composite materials are being used increasingly in industrial applications wherever technical performance is a critical factor, and also when the intrinsic properties of these materials produce a more effective and efficient solution.
Heat treatment industry
Snecma Propulsion Solide has developed a medium density (1.5) 3D C-C composite material (called Sepcarb H01) that is perfectly suited to high temperature treatment furnaces, (vacuum or inert atmosphere type), such as those used for brazing, annealing or case-hardening. They commonly operate at between 700°C and 1300°C.
Snecma Propulsion Solide has the capacity to handle complex projects and its design office has the skills and abilities needed to design furnace equipment adapted to the specific needs of its customers.
Dimensionally stable structures for optical instruments
Sepcarb® has a very low coefficient of expansion. Superior thermal stability over the temperature range regularly encountered in orbit can be attained by creating an architecture that is specially adapted to the material. This thermal stability simplifies the design of the optical instruments, and also reduces overall weight.
Snecma Propulsion Solide performs ICVI deposition of high purity SiC onto mirror substrates made from sintered SiC and C/SiC (StarSiC®) to produce superb quality optical surfaces.
Nuclear industry
Fusion
Special carbon-carbon composites have been developed to resist the extreme operating conditions encountered in experimental nuclear fusion reactors (Tore Supra at the CEA Cadarache, W7-X in Germany, ITER).
The properties of these 3D composites are different in each orthogonal direction, notably with a very high thermal conductivity in one direction, and a very high mechanical strength in another - sufficient to withstand the stresses induced by several MW of cyclical thermal flows.
Fission
The new technologies implicit to the fourth-generation nuclear fission reactors, notably with regards to their operation at higher temperatures, will require materials that offer greater performance, particularly in terms of thermo-mechanics, resistance to oxidation, resistance to radiation, etc.
Snecma Propulsion Solide offers a range of Sepcarb® and Sepcarbinox® composites that combine different fiber and surface protection technologies to withstand these stresses.
Aircraft braking
The development of carbon-carbon brakes was made possible by the design, at the start of the 1980’s, of Snecma Propulsion Solide’s new non-delaminable stiffening material, called Novoltex®, and of more economical industrial processes suited to large production runs. The enhanced performance delivered by the brakes led to this carbon-carbon braking technology being adopted around the world. One notable example is the units produced by Messier-Bugatti, SAFRAN Group, in France and in the United States.