Reinforced and damped tubular structures

A process for making a tubular structure having a machine direction, a cross-machine direction coplanar thereto, and a Z-direction orthogonal to both said machine- and cross-machine directions, said process comprising the steps of:

• disposing a sheet metal supply coil of a sheet metal on an uncoiler;
• unwinding the sheet metal from the sheet metal supply coil with the uncoiler;
• directing the sheet metal to a mandrel on a recoiler, the mandrel having a defined geometry providing the convolutely wound tubular structure with a desired internal cross-sectional shape and size;
• disposing a leading edge of the sheet metal on the mandrel;
• rotating the mandrel to coaxially dispose the first sheet metal about the mandrel to form a convolutely wound region of the tubular structure and provide the convolutely wound region with a first desired thickness;
• when the convolutely wound region attains the first desired thickness, severing the sheet metal in the cross-machine direction, forming a tail portion of the convolutely wound region;
• attaching the tail portion of the convolutely wound region to a previous convolution of the convolutely wound region of the tubular structure;
• providing an additional region on one of an interior of the convolutely wound region and an exterior of the convolutely wound region to thereby provide the tubular structure with the additional region and the convolutely wound region, wherein the additional region is a single layer tubular member of one of a homogeneous and a heterogeneous material, wherein the additional region further comprises one of aluminum, carbon steel, stainless steel, metal alloys, carbon fiber resin matrix and fiberglass;
• applying a layer of adhesive between the additional region and the convolutely wound region.