A. ENTITY DESCRIPTION

FIDAMC is a Research Center created in 2006 by the Spanish Ministry of Industry, the Regional Government of Madrid, and the Airbus Group focused on the research, development, and potential uses of composite materials. The entity is mainly addressed to aerospace activities but is widely open to other sectors, having carried out projects in the railway, wind energy, and automotive areas. FIDAMC staff number is 70 people, mainly high-skilled engineers, with a strong background in composite materials.
FIDAMC facilities have been located in Getafe since 2009, with an area of about 1500 m2 for offices and 4000 m2 for the physicochemical and mechanical laboratory and the manufacturing workshop. This huge area gives house to the specific state-of-the-art equipment required to carry out composite demonstrator manufacturing. The main general activities carried out at FIDAMC are the improvement of technologies already known and the analysis, testing and demonstration of emerging technologies. All tasks can be included in a range from TRL2 to TRL6 in the standard scale of NASA, which takes into account the aspects related to the technology maturity level.
FIDAMC structure is organized into 3 different departments which consider projects made with dry fiber materials, thermoset pre-impregnated materials, thermoplastic materials, advanced materials or manufacturing of structures and coupons. The physicochemical and mechanical laboratories give transversal service and support to the project development, as well as the manufacturing workshop. The techniques used by FIDAMC are those directly related to advanced composite material manufacturing technologies, which include:

• Automated lay-up (ATL, Tow Placement, In-situ consolidation);
• Advanced Composites Liquid Moulding (Resin Transfer Moulding, Resin Liquid Infusion);
• Pre-forming / Hot-forming; Composite Joining and Assembly Techniques;
• Smart composite structures (Optical fibre monitoring).

FIDAMC Quality Management System is certified to fulfill the requirements of ISO 9100 and ISO 14001 standards and is also Airbus Certified to carry out some laboratory tests and manufacturing special processes. Some nice examples of those processes are the manufacturing of monolithic composite panels, preparation of surfaces, structural bonding, or resin transfer molding infusion. FIDAMC testing laboratory is accredited by ENAC with Nº Exp. 1099/LE2107, which means its management system is guided by the ISO 17025 standard.

B. ROLE IN THE HERFUSE PROJECT

FIDAMC activities in the project are mainly related to the lamination and forming of thermoplastic elements of the upper shell (WP4 & 8)