Method of manufacturing composite materials
AssigneeThe Secretary of State for Defence in Her Britannic Majesty's Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
InventorsJohn Corjeag Cannell, Rodney Seymour Leaper, Noel James Parratt
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Abstract
A process for forming a composite material comprising a metal matrix incorporating fibrous reinforcement having a pre-determined pattern of fibre orientation which includes the steps of providing in a mould substantially parallel fibre arrays in which each array consists of a sheet of substantially coplanar fibres, providing a reservoir of molten matrix metal between at least some of the fibre arrays and applying pressure to the mould contents sufficient to force molten metal to surround substantially all the fibres.
Claims22
A process for forming a composite material comprising a metal matrix incorporating non-metallic fibrous reinforcement having a predetermined pattern of fiber orientation which includes the steps of:
- a. providing in a mold a plurality of layers of fibers formed from at least one array of substantially coplanar fibers,
- b. providing reservoirs of molten matrix metal between at least some of the layers of fibers, and
- c. forcing said molten metal to penetrate said layers and intimately to surround substantially each of the fibers by applying pressure to the mold contents, sufficient matrix metal reservoirs being provided for the separation between neighboring reservoirs to be within twice the distance that the molten metal can penetrate before solidification under the applied temperature and pressure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.