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US 2015/0090392 A1Published application
Automated Production and Installation of Patches for Reworking Structures
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsBlake Anthony Bertrand, Steven Donald Blanchard
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An area of a composite laminate structure is reworked by scarfing the area, generating a 3-D map of the scarfed area, and installing a rework patch that is built based on the 3-D map.
Claims28
A method of reworking an area of a composite structure, comprising:
- removing material from the area to be reworked;
- generating a 3-D map of the area following removal of the material;
- and
- producing a rework patch based on the 3-D map.
1 more element
A method of reworking a structure, comprising:
- removing material from an area of the structure;
- generating a set of digital data representing a 3-D definition of the area after the material has been removed from the structure;
- producing a rework patch using additive manufacturing based on the set of digital data;
- and
- installing the rework patch in the area of the structure.
2 more elements
A method of producing a composite laminate patch for reworking an area of a composite laminate structure, comprising:
- providing a mixture of fusible matrix material and carbon nanotubes;
- and,
- producing a plurality of reinforced composite plies having differing ply orientations, including fusing the matrix material layer-by-layer, and orienting the carbon nanotubes as the mixture is being fused.
A patch for reworking an area of a structure, comprising:
- a plurality of laminated resin plies each reinforced with carbon nanotubes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.