Carbon Foam Tooling With Durable Skin
OwnerRichard L. Shao, David M. Kaschakinventors
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Abstract
An article for tooling composite materials, including a carbon foam, a sealant attached to the carbon foam so as to form a monolithic fine-grain graphite-like surface; and a skin of facesheet materials. The facesheet materials include: a spray-deposited coating of metal; more preferably, a thermal or plasma spray-deposited metal; and most preferably, a plasma sprayed Invar metal. The facesheet materials may optionally include a flash coating. The facesheet materials alternately include plastics, resinous materials and carbon-carbon composite materials.
Claims27
An article for tooling composite materials, the article comprising:
- a carbon foam having a pore distribution such that at least about 90% of the pore volume comprises pores having a diameter of between about 10 microns and about 150 microns and at least about 1% of the pore volume comprises pores having a diameter of between about 0.8 microns and about 3.5 microns;
- a layer of sealant attached to the carbon foam;
- and
- a skin positioned above the layer of sealant, the skin having a tooling surface.
An article for tooling composite materials, the article comprising:
- a carbon foam having a pore distribution such that at least about 90% of the pore volume comprises pores having a diameter of between about 10 microns and about 150 microns and at least about 1% of the pore volume comprises pores having a diameter of between about 0.8 microns and about 3.5 microns;
- a sealant attached to the carbon foam;
- and
- a skin disposed on the sealant, the skin having a tooling surface,
- wherein the sealant comprises a filler having of two sets of filler particles including a first filler fraction and a second filler fraction, the filler fractions having differing particle size distributions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.