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US 10,682,822 B2Granted
Materials and methods for nucleating aligned thermoplastic crystals while fabricating thermoplastic carbon fiber reinforced polymer structures
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsKeith D Humfeld, Scott Hartshorn
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present disclosure relates to methods and systems for making thermoplastic resin materials and composite resin systems and materials made from the thermoplastic resins, by seeding one melted thermoplastic material with a second thermoplastic material in a crystalline state that comprises an amount of ferromagnetic material.
Claims20
A method of preparing an oriented thermoplastic resin, the method comprising:
- heating a thermoplastic resin to a predetermined temperature to generate a melted thermoplastic resin, said thermoplastic resin comprising:
- a first thermoplastic resin material having a first melting point;
- and
- a second thermoplastic resin material having a second melting point;
- wherein said second thermoplastic resin material is in a crystalline state and said second thermoplastic resin material further comprises a ferromagnetic material;
- and
- wherein the predetermined temperature is a temperature that is at or above the first melting point and below the second melting point;
- applying a magnetic field to the melted thermoplastic resin for a predetermined amount of time;
- and
- cooling the melted thermoplastic resin to form the oriented thermoplastic resin.
7 more elements
A method of seeding crystal growth in a seeded thermoplastic resin, the method comprising:
- introducing a second thermoplastic resin material in a crystalline state to a first thermoplastic resin material to form a seeded thermoplastic resin mixture, said second thermoplastic resin material having a higher melting point than the first thermoplastic resin material, and said second thermoplastic resin material comprising an amount of a ferromagnetic material that is responsive to a magnetic flux density ranging from about 0.1 T to about 1T;
- applying a magnetic field having a magnetic flux density ranging from about 0.1T to about 1T to the seeded thermoplastic resin mixture, thereby orienting the second thermoplastic resin material relative to the magnetic field to form an oriented second thermoplastic resin material;
- and
- cooling the seeded thermoplastic resin mixture to form crystal growth in the seeded thermoplastic resin mixture, said crystals aligned with the second thermoplastic resin material.
1 more element
A thermoplastic resin material mixture, comprising:
- a first thermoplastic resin material having a first melting point, said first thermoplastic resin material in a melted state;
- a second thermoplastic resin material, said second thermoplastic resin material comprising an amount of a ferromagnetic material, and said second thermoplastic resin material having a second melting point, and said second thermoplastic resin material in a crystalline state;
- wherein the second melting point exceeds the first melting point by a temperature difference ranging from about 10° F. to about 50° F.;
- and
- wherein the thermoplastic resin material mixture is in a substantially uniformly oriented state.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.