The Black Design concept by SKF is a technology that enables the manufacture of lightweight and high performance composite structural parts for a much wider variety of aerospace applications. These include structural cleats and products such as hubs and carriers that integrate bearings within the composite part.
SKF Black Design is able to combine existing carbon fibre reinforced plastic parts construction methods with innovative design techniques, extending the scope of applications for composite solutions to structural parts that are strongly competitive against current metallic part solutions in terms of mass-versus-cost ratio. Moreover, SKF Black Design can avoid many of the issues that arise when combining metallic and composite elements within a single structural part.
The SKF technology can lead to a disruption in metal-replacement, making a substantial contribution to the aerospace industry’s goal of developing lighter weight structures that do not corrode and which are not susceptible to fatigue cracking.