Materials: Composites

Managing the Impact of Nanomaterials in Aerospace Manufacturing

As the aerospace industry continues to make improvements to safety, comfort and affordability of aircraft, nanomaterials are making their way into more elements of aircraft structure, electronics, glass, textiles and other components. While these materials provide tangible advantages in terms of weight, strength, speed and comfort, their effect on the humans that come into contact with them is still being studied and debated.

With dimensions between approximately 1 and 100 nanometers - about the size of a virus - nanomaterials have unusual physical, chemical and biological properties that can differ significantly from the properties of bulk materials, including single atoms or molecules. These differences enable the aerospace industry to do a number of things including: engineer aircraft structures that are flexible and adaptive; develop innovative energy generation and storage systems for air travel; and manufacture sensors that monitor virtually every element of air travel. However, these differences also create challenges for ensuring that an aerospace manufacturing workforce and those supporting its supply chain are not inhaling unhealthy concentrations of nanomaterials.