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US 12,746,730 B2Granted
Corrosion resistant steel (CRES) bladder
AssigneeGKN Fokker Aerospace B.V.
InventorJaap Willem Van Ingen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The disclosure concerns an out-of-autoclave thermoplastic consolidation apparatus and method comprising a metallic bladder which is biased against a lower part of a tool during a consolidation process to form a composite component.
Claims13
An out-of-autoclave thermoplastic consolidation apparatus comprising:
- an upper forming tool;
- a lower forming tool opposing the upper forming tool, the upper forming tool and lower forming tools defining a space therebetween for forming a part;
- a caul plate arranged between the upper forming tool and the lower forming tool, the caul plate being removable from the space and configured to contact a surface of the part;
- and
- an expandable bladder arranged between the caul plate and the upper tool, the expandable bladder extending across the caul plate and including a pair of opposing flexible surfaces and a peripherally extending seal;
- wherein the flexible surfaces are between 0.3 mm to 0.5 mm in thickness, and the flexible surfaces are of dissimilar thicknesses.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.