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US 3,960,626 AGranted
Method of making high performance ablative tape
AssigneeMartin Marietta Corporation
InventorJames L. Casadevall
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AssigneeMartin Marietta Corporation
InventorJames L. Casadevall
Estimating the term…
A high temperature tape for use in protecting a structural item to be subjected to high temperature, and the method whereby this novel tape is made are set forth. The tape is principally constituted by a number of elongated carrier fibers disposed in an essentially aligned array, and a large number of comparatively short fibers disposed in a nonwoven manner essentially transversely to the elongated fibers. The short fibers typically extend beyond the confines of the carrier fibers, at least on one side, thus to create a pliable, fringed tape capable of being wrapped for a number of turns about an item to be protected. This wrapping may be done in such a manner that the fringe formed by the short orthogonally placed fibers is available to extend over and cover previous turns of the tape. The fibers are of temperature resistant material, and various means are provided for securing the short fibers to the elongated fibers, including the use of certain resins. If resin is used, it may be of a type that can be cured subsequent to the layup of a length of the tape into a desired configuration, such as a missile nose cone.
A method for fabricating a nonwoven tape of high temperature fibers for use in high temperature applications comprising the steps of forming a plurality of elongate carrier fibers into an essentially aligned array, securing thereon in a nonwoven manner, a large plurality of cross fibers disposed essentially perpendicularly to said carrier fibers, with said cross fibers extending beyond said carrier fibers on at least one side to form a fringe, thus to create a pliable high temperature tape which can thereafter be wrapped for a number of turns about an item to be protected, with the fringe of cross fibers extending beyond the confines of the carrier fibers being available to provide a covering for one or more previous turns of such tape, and wrapping the tape, with the fringe intact, around a generally circular means.
A method for producing a nonwoven tape of high temperature fibers comprising the steps of forming an array of elongate, essentially parallel securing fibers, secufing a large number of cross fibers in a substantially even distribution along the length of said carrier fibers, with said cross fibers being in essentially orthogonal relationship to said carrier fibers, said cross fibers being longer than the width of said carrier fiber array and being disposed so as to extend for a significant distance beyond at least one side edge of said carrier fiber array, such overhanging fibers being available to lend strength to a layup involving the tape being wrapped for a number of overlapping turns about an item to be protected.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.