Airbus A400M Thermoplastic Ice Protection Plates

This project was completed under the company name TenCate Advanced Composites, prior to our acquisition by Toray Industries and name change to Toray Advanced Composites in 2019.

The new Airbus A400M features ice protection plates produced from TenCate Cetex® glass PPS semipreg. TenCate Advanced Composites in Nijverdal (NL) supplies this thermoplastic composite material for a wide range of structural and semi-structural aircraft components.

Fokker Aerostructures (Hoogeveen, NL) processes the material into finished panels. The panels protect sides of the fuselage alongside the propeller tips from damage caused by chunks of ice that, under certain weather conditions, are flung from the propellers of the military transport aircraft. TenCate Cetex® semipreg material was selected because it provides excellent impact resistance and also a very good chemical resistance (deicing and hydraulic/decontamination fluids). It is also used on the fixed wing leading edges of the Airbus A380, and is qualified at both Airbus and Boeing for multiple structural applications.

TenCate Cetex® thermoplastics offer:

• Excellent FST performance, OSU (< 15/15)
• Rapid production processing < 3 minutes
• Certified to Airbus and Boeing specifications
• Assembly by welding
• Incorporation with TenCate lightning strike material