Co-consolidation of thermoplastic parts
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsBlair Alexandra Lim, Young Zeon, Gerfried Rudolf Achtner
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Abstract
Systems and methods are provided for consolidating thermoplastic parts. One embodiment is a method of automatically forming a thermoplastic composite structure. The method includes heating a thermoplastic preform to a forming temperature, forming the thermoplastic preform into a thermoplastic part having a desired shape, aligning multiple thermoplastic parts together, and consolidating the multiple thermoplastic parts together while controlling crystallization to form a complex thermoplastic part.
Claims20
A method of automatically forming a thermoplastic composite structure, the method comprising:
- heating a thermoplastic preform to a melting temperature of a resin within the thermoplastic preform;
- forming the thermoplastic preform into a thermoplastic part having a desired shape;
- aligning multiple thermoplastic parts together;
- stamping at least one of the multiple thermoplastic parts into a shape via a die;
- cooling the die while the die contacts at least one of the multiple thermoplastic parts to a crystallization temperature that is lower than the melting temperature and higher than an ambient temperature within less than one minute;
- and
- consolidating the multiple thermoplastic parts together while controlling crystallization by holding the multiple thermoplastic parts at the crystallization temperature to form a complex thermoplastic part.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.