Honeycomb spliced multilayer foam core aircraft composite parts and method for making same

A method of making an aircraft composite component comprising joining at least two foam sheets to make a foam core, surrounding the foam core with resin impregnated fibers, and curing said resin impregnated fibers wherein the improvement comprises joining said foam sheets by

• a. aligning a layer of honeycomb having cells so that said cells are between and generally perpendicular to two layers of sheet foam, and said honeycomb cells having a compressive strength greater than that of the sheet foam;
• and
• b. applying a compressive force generally perpendicular to at least one layer of sheet foam so that the honeycomb cells pentrate each of the two layers of sheet foam to a substantially equal depth where said layers of foam contact each other at least through each of the honeycomb openings to form a foam-honeycomb-foam sandwich said honeycomb not penetrating entirely through said foam sheets;
• resulting in a composite component that has increased shear strength in comparison to adhesively bonded foam sheets.

A method of making an aircraft composite component comprising joining at least two foam sheets to make a foam core, surrounding the foam core with resin impregnated fibers, and curing said resin impregnated fibers wherein the improvement comprises joining said foam sheets by

• a. aligning a layer of honeycomb having cells so that the cells are generally perpendicular to a first layer of sheet foam;
• b. applying a compressive force generally perpendicular to said layer of sheet foam so that the honeycomb cells penetrate said layer of sheet foam;
• c. aligning a second layer of sheet foam, having a compressive strength substantially less than said first layer, generally perpendicular so said layer of honeycomb against said honeycomb layer's exposed side;
• and
• d. applying a compressive strength generally perpendicular to at least one layer of sheet foam so that the honeycomb cells penetrate said layers of sheet foam to a depth where said layers of foam contact each other at least through each of the honeycomb openings to form a foam-honeycomb-foam sandwich said honeycomb not in contact with said resin impregnated fibers;
• resulting in a composite component that has increased shear strength.

Aircraft composite comopnents, comprising a composite skin surrounding foam core wherein the improvement comprises:

• a. said foam core comprising alternating layers of at least two layers of sheet foam and at least one layer of honeycomb having cells;
• b. said honeycomb layer having a greater compressive strength than said layers of sheet foam;
• c. said layers of sheet foam in contact with each other at least through each of the honeycomb openings;
• and
• d. said layer of honeycomb cells extending into and generally perpendicular to each of said two layers of sheet foam but not penetrating entirely through said sheet foam layer to form a foam-honeycomb-foam sandwich;
• wherein the composite component has increased shear strength.