Bonding of composite materials
AssigneeCytec Industries Inc.
InventorsLeonard MacAdams, Dalip Kohli
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for surface preparation of composite substrates prior to adhesive bonding. A curable surface treatment layer is applied onto a curable, resin-based composite substrate, followed by co-curing. After co-curing, the composite substrate is fully cured but the surface treatment layer remains partially cured. The surface treatment layer may be a resin film or a removal peel ply composed of resin-impregnated fabric. After surface preparation, the composite substrate is provided with a chemically-active, bondable surface that can be adhesively bonded to another composite substrate to form a covalently-bonded structure.
Claims7
A bonding method comprising:
- (a) providing a first composite substrate comprising reinforcing fibers infused or impregnated with a first curable matrix resin;
- (b) applying a resin film onto a surface of the first composite substrate, said resin film is formed from a second curable matrix resin, which is formulated to cure at a slower rate than the first curable matrix resin;
- (c) co-curing the first composite substrate and the resin film until the first composite substrate is fully cured but the resin film remains partially cured, thereby providing a bondable surface with chemically-active functional groups;
- (e) joining the cured, first composite substrate to a second composite substrate with a curable adhesive film in between the composite substrates,
- wherein the curable adhesive film comprises chemically-active functional groups capable of reacting with the chemically-active functional groups on the bondable surface of the first composite substrate;
- and
- (f) curing the adhesive film to form a covalently bonded structure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.