Materials selection by intuition or systematic approach

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Shifting from metals to lightweight composites in aircraft structures spurred the development of low-cost airlines! What lessons learned could make the difference in healthcare products?

Freddy Moriniere
82 months ago

3 answers

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Since question addresses healthcare products / pharmaceuticals, the "material" that is of most relevance to the topic under discussions are drugs; excipients are very cheap in comparison.
Typically, drugs are selected through a data-driven process often starting with an in silico investigation, supplemented by intuition and often desired serendipity. I do not see a possibility that drug cost, in this context making the drug cost a selection criterion would in any way improve the current process. Clearly, increasing our knowledge of diseases is the way to go.

Karel Petrak
82 months ago
True, we need to understand the underlying mechanisms and principles rather than interpreting detailed facts - Freddy 82 months ago
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First, I do not understand the analogy and second, the Boeing 707 was what spawned a number of low cost airlines, as far as I know. Expensive composite based aircraft have only recently been added to the fleets. The "lesson" there is probably more akin to the generics and biosimilars process - make something safe and effective for a large market and offer it at more affordable price.

Meg B
82 months ago
Hope the post below will help you better understand my point of view - Freddy 82 months ago
There is a difference between the business model of the airline as a whole and the efficiency of an individual aircraft. I was addressing the former as that is how the question reads. Obviously, operating costs as a whole, are one element that effects the bottom line. - Meg 82 months ago
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Boeing is making the 737 since the 70s but it is the series made from the 90s that propelled low-cost airlines. Due to redesigned parts with advanced lightweight materials, low-cost airlines took this opportunity to improve ROI by reducing even further their operating cost (landing fees, fuel consumption, etc.).
Composites were essential to this success story. Step by step, composites were applied to several secondary applications such as cargo floor, galleys, flaps, wing tips and so on. The progressive diversification of applications helped to better understand the behaviour of composites and develop sufficient knowledge in order to apply this material to critical primary structures such as the fuselage in the recent 787. As you mentioned safety standard, reliability figures and price target were key requirements for composites to become a ‘commodity’ product after decades.
This long time scale is quite similar to the field of biosciences and there are certainly lessons that we could transfer from experiences made in the material/chemical industry. Actually, composites has favoured the development of self-healing materials (almost like living materials/molecules) to aim at limiting the time aircraft stay on ground for repair.

Freddy Moriniere
82 months ago

Have some input?