Aerospace Composites Division (erstwhile Composites Manufacturing Division) was conceived as early as the dates of design of Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) & Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) and having experience in manufacturing and realizing aircraft structures made of composites. Over the years the scope and role of the facility was defined, refined from Advanced Composites Shop to Centre of Excellence. The Division became fully functional as Composites Manufacturing Division from April 2007 as a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) of HAL.

Currently, the Division is manufacturing the composite structural parts for Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH), Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), Light Combat Helicopter (LCH), Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) and PSLV/GSLV.

The Division is equipped with modern infrastructure in Plant and Equipment like Environmental Control Area of various Classes ,  -18 degC Cold Stores, Autoclaves, High precision 5-Axis CNC Machining Centers, Automated Ply Cutting Machines, Surface Enhancement Machine (Shot Peening ), Hot Platen Presses, Computer Controlled Air Circulating Ovens, Laser Projection Systems for Lay –up, CT-Scan ,Ultrasonic C-Scan, Coordinate Measuring Machines, Universal Testing Machines and material test laboratory for composite material testing.

With average production rates of several thousand composite parts annually for many of our products, Aerospace Composites Division is one of the top, high volume producers of advanced composite aerospace products in the country.
 

The Division has High Tech facilities under the following major heads

• CAD / CAM manufacture
• CAD (Tool Design)
• CATIA / UG(NX6) Work Stations
• 5 Axis Special Purpose CNC Machining Centers
• CNC Shot Peening (Surface Enhancement)
• Programmable Prepreg Cutting Machines
• Autoclaves (Max size is 4M(diameter) x8M(Length))
• Computer Controlled Air Circulating Ovens
• Hot Platen Presses
• Environment Controlled Area (ECA) / Contamination Controlled Area (CCA)
• Filament Winding Facility
• -18 deg C Cold Stores
• Computed Tomography (CT-Scan)
• Ultrasonic C-Scan
• Universal Testing Machine (UTM)
• Co-ordinate Measuring machine (CMM)
• Digital Scanning Calorimeter(DSC)
• Thermo Mechanical Analyzer (TMA)
• Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer(DMA)
• Laser Projection Systems
• X-ray Fluoroscopy
• Laser Tracker

1. National

• Director General of Aeronautical Quality Assurance (DGAQA), India.
• Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), India.

2. International

• IAI , Israel
• NADCAP -  Composites
• NADCAP -  Non Destructive Testing

Products in Current Manufacturing Range

Composite components for Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH)

• Hinge less Main Rotor Blade
• Bearing less Tail Rotor Blade
• Main Rotor Hub Plate
• Anti Resonance Isolation System ( ARIS)
• Torque Plate
• Rescue Hoist Beam
• Major structural components like Cockpit, Doors, TailBoom, EndPlate, Cowling etc.

Composite components for Light Combat Helicopter (LCH)

The LCH, a derivative of Advanced Light Helicopter, is a dedicated attack helicopter built to meet the requirements of armed roles for operations. The dynamic systems of the Dhruv have been adapted in it, making it both formidable and dependable.
The beauty has a narrow fuselage and tandom crew seat. Major structural and dynamic parts are made out of advanced composite materials.

Composite components for Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) 

Aerospace Composites Division has successfully manufactured and produced state of the art Primary Structural Components for Tejas (LCA) using advanced composites materials. A few examples are control surfaces using co-cured construction, fuselage doors, hatches using sandwich and monolithic construction and large wing skin panels / airbrake skins. ACD has specialized in manufacture of Carbon fibre Composites (CFC) wing assembly details parts consisting of a number of CFC spars, monolithic skin panels etc.

Aerospace Composites Division is manufacturing the Flexible Rubberized Fuel Tanks for Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH).
 

Airframe

• Aircraft structural components made of advanced composite materials

1. Honeycomb sandwich bonded structures
2. Co-cured / Co-bonded components

• Dynamic parts for Helicopters

1. Rotor systems (Main Rotor Blades, Tail Rotor Blades, Hub Plates and Torque plates etc.)

• Helicopter structural assemblies (Doors)

Repairs, Major Servicing and Supply of Spares

As part of Customer service, Technical and Logistic support is provided. Technical support is rendered to the Customer in the following areas:

• Maintenance and Repair of Composite assemblies
• Compliance of Modification and Technical Instructions
• Accident and Incident Investigations 
• Training of Customer's Personnel
• On the Logistic side, the support is rendered in the following areas:
• Supply of spares
• Supply of items against priority demands like AOG

Customer’s operating personnel are provided training in servicing and maintenance of Parts manufactured by the Division through in-plant training courses, workshops and interactions at operating base.

Aerospace Composites Division has carried out:
1. Manufacture of:

• Monolithic & sandwich construction structural parts for ALH, LCH, LCA and Cowlings for Ecureuil helicopter, France.
• Honeycomb Sandwich bonded structures, metal-to-metal bonded components.
• Composite components in Carbon, Kevlar & glass Prepreg.
• Dynamic components like Main Rotor Blade, Tail Rotor Blade, Hub plates, ARIS Spring. For ALH & LCH
• Door Assembly for ALH & LCH
• Co curing of composites parts
• Machining of composites parts

2. Design and Manufacture of :

• Composites Molding Tools
• Master Models for Tooling

3. Servicing of:

• Transmission components
• Structural components

Aerospace Composites Division is exploring potential business opportunity with private partners for service and support in supply of composite & metallic tooling and metallic/ composite parts.

For composite parts and tooling the support will be in the form of:

• Exposure in design, development and fabrication of tools, manufacturing & supply of monolithic and sandwich composite parts.
• Facilities such as Autoclave, Clean room, Cold storage, Core machining, Universal testing machine, Ultrasonic testing machines etc. for manufacturing for composite parts.
• AS 9100:2016 certification for manufacture of Composite Parts and Composite Structural  Assemblies for Aerospace Application.
• Exposure in design and development of fixtures, checking templates, machining and supply of cured composite components, foam parts etc.
• Exposure in NC programming and CNC machining of epoxy tooling boards of various shapes and sizes, metallic tooling predominantly of Aluminum alloys and tool steel etc. The machining of tools to be carried out on 3-axis or 5-axis machining centers.
• Laser inspection services for tooling/jig setting using scanning and tracker, CMM inspection services etc.

For metallic parts the support will be in the form of:

• CNC and conventional machining facilities
• CNC and conventional jig boring facilities
• Wire cutting facility
• Fabrication of sheet metal parts
• Spline cutting faclility

General Manager
Aerospace Composites Division
Helicopter Complex,
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
Marathahalli Post,
Bangalore - 560 037, India.

Telephone: +91 - 80 - 22314764
Fax:            +91 - 80 - 22315005