Apparatus for making nested honeycomb structures
AssigneeCore Craft Technologies, Inc.
InventorBernard P. Kunz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A nested fiberglass structure (10) comprises a plurality of strips (66) each in the shape of a sinusoidal wave (20). The waves (20) have peaks (22) and valleys (24) which have equal amplitudes about a central axis (26). A positioning string (32) is placed over the peaks (22) and into the valleys (24) to provide a guide for the depth of penetration of adjacent strips during nesting of the strips (66). The structure (10) may be formed on an apparatus for manufacturing (46) which forms a continuous web (48) into the strips (66) and nests the strips (66) into the structure (10). The structure (10) may then be wound onto a reel (154) for fabrication into a cylindrical structure (34). The apparatus (136) spirally winds the nested structure (10) around a mandrel (182) to form the cylindrical structure (34). 2
Claims22
An assembly for forming a corrugated fiberglass structure, comprising:
- means for forming a plurality of corrugated fiberglass strips, said strips having peaks and valleys;
- means for nesting a predetermined number of said corrugated fiberglass strips to place peaks and valleys of each of said strips within peaks and valleys of adjacent strips;
- and
- means for an edge of each of said predetermined number of strips into a skin of fibrous material to form the corrugated structure and to improve shear strength thereof, comprising:
- means for wetting said skin of fibrous material;
- means for positioning said edge of said nested strips adjacent to said wet skin of fibrous material;
- and
- means for applying pressure to said nested strips and said skin of fibrous material, said pressure being sufficient to cause said edges of nested strips to penetrate said skin of fibrous material wherein said edges of nested strips are embedded in said skin of fibrous material.
An assembly for forming a corrugated fiberglass structure, comprising:
- means for installing positioning means over peaks and into valleys of a corrugated fiberglass sheet, wherein the peaks and valleys have a substantially straight line forward slope and a substantially straight line reverse slope;
- means for cutting said sheet into strips;
- means for nesting the strips to place said peaks and said valleys of each of said strips within said peaks and said valleys of adjacent strips;
- and
- means for an edge of each of said strips into a skin of fibrous material to form the corrugated structure and to improve shear strength of the structure, including:
- means for wetting said skin of fibrous material;
- means for positioning said edge of said nested strips adjacent to said wet skin of fibrous material;
- and
- means for applying pressure to said nested strips and said skin of fibrous material, said pressure being sufficient to cause said edges of nested strips to penetrated said skin of fibrous material wherein said edges of nested strips are embedded in said skin of fibrous material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.