Method of designing and producing carbon fiber connecting rods
AssigneeAWA Forged Composites, LLC
InventorBryan Gill
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods of designing and producing a connecting rod using carbon fiber reinforced epoxy molding compound composite material are provided, such that the method allows connecting rod designer to machine several different connecting rod designs, lengths, and beams. The material is molded into a near-net shape. After molding, the blank is machined into the final shape of a connecting rod and the material is sealed.
Claims9
A method of designing and producing a composite connecting rod having a plurality of connecting rod designs, the method comprising:
- combining the plurality of the connecting rod designs to obtain a single connecting rod blank design;
- forming a tooling cavity mold of the connecting rod blank design and compression molding a connecting rod blank using the tooling mold;
- wherein the compression molding the connecting rod blank comprises, heating the composite material, placing the composite material into the mold, compressing material in the mold using a press which further comprises laying a unidirectional fiber skeleton, and removing the material after cooling;
- and
- machining the connecting rod blank into at least one of the connecting rod designs thereby obtaining the composite connecting rod.
The method of claim 7, the impregnating further comprises:
- placing the connecting rod blank into an autoclave;
- applying vacuum to the autoclave and subjecting the connecting rod blank to negative autoclave pressure;
- heating the impregnating liquid containing the sodium silicate impregnating solution;
- introducing the heated impregnating solution into the autoclave;
- submerging the connecting rod blank in the heated impregnating solution and increasing the autoclave pressure from negative pressure to positive pressure;
- maintaining the positive pressure in the autoclave
- removing the connecting rod blank from the autoclave and washing the connecting rod blank in cold water;
- and
- drying the connecting rod blank.
The method of claim 8, the drying the connecting rod blank further comprises drying the blank in an oven for at least 10 minutes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.