Back to results
US 11,142,830 B2Granted
Method of surface micro-texturing with a subtractive agent
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsRaj Desai, Caitlin Elizabeth Auffinger, Conor Van Camp, Edward Greene
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of micro-texturing a surface is disclosed. The method includes printing an etchant onto a substrate surface and forming a micro-texture on the substrate surface by removing material from the substrate surface.
Claims20
A method of micro-texturing a curved substrate surface on a skin of an aircraft, comprising:
- printing an etchant onto a curved substrate surface on the skin of an aircraft by dispensing etchant droplets from an inkjet printhead mounted on a robotic arm capable of rotation around six different axes, and
- forming a micro-texture on the substrate surface by removing material from the substrate surface,
- wherein a size of the etchant droplets defines a dimension of the micro-texture.
A method of micro-texturing a curved substrate surface on a skin of an aircraft, comprising:
- generating micro-riblets on the curved substrate surface by printing etchant on the substrate surface by dispensing etchant droplets from an inkjet printhead mounted on a robotic arm capable of rotation around six different axes, dissolving substrate material in the etchant, and removing the etchant from the substrate surface,
- wherein a waiting period between the printing and removing steps defines a dimension of the micro-riblets.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.