US 2024/0426786 A1 · INSTANTANEOUS IN-SITU RESIN AND RESIN COMPOSITE CURE MONITORING

Abstract

The disclosure provides a system and method for ultrasonic non-destructive testing to monitor the curing process of a resin and filled resin materials during manufacture. The inventors have discovered that ultrasound parameters revealed in ultrasonic signal analysis reveals the degree of cure and therefore important curing stages during processing for a proper cure and allow the product to perform as intended. Generally, the ultrasound parameters include signal speed of sound and/or instantaneous peak power relative to wall-clock time of the ultrasound signal. The system and method can monitor the cure of resin and filled resin materials using instantaneous data without the need for previous data for that individual scan, can use ultrasound portably such that carbon fiber laminates can be monitored in-situ, and is conducive to isothermal cure or cure using a varying temperature profile. Thus, the invention represents a step in manufacturing of resin-curing products heretofore unavailable.

Claims7

Dependent claims

A method for ultrasonic non-destructive testing to determine a curing state of a resin-curing product, comprising:

coupling an ultrasonic transducer to the resin-curing product;
exciting the transducer with an ultrasound data acquisition unit coupled to the transducer to produce acoustic signals in the form of waveforms and collecting data;
processing the acoustic signals into data of ultrasonic parameters;
and
determining the curing state of the resin-curing product from the ultrasonic parameters.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Instantaneous in-situ resin and resin composite cure monitoring

Life of this patent

Instantaneous in-situ resin and resin composite cure monitoring

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims7