Crossover mold tool for consolidating composite material
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorRichard D. Pratt
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A curved composite material body is consolidated to a complexly curved shape by placing rigid tooling on the concave-facing side of the body, and a pressure membrane on the other (convex-facing) side of the body. In another region of the body where the sign of the curvature of the body changes so that the other side becomes the concave-facing side, the rigid tooling is placed on that side, against the concave-facing side, and the pressure membrane is contacted to the convex-facing side. The rigid tooling thus crosses over from one side to the other through various regions of the body, providing a precise consolidation to meet the structural and dimensional specifications. Consolidation is achieved by applying pressure to the body of composite material through the pressure membranes.
Claims18
A process for consolidating a composite material body, comprising the steps of:
- furnishing a composite material body having a structure formed of unconsolidated plies of reinforcement fibers embedded in a matrix, the body having a first side and an opposed second side;
- then,
- placing a first rigid tool against the first side of the composite body in a first region;
- placing a second rigid tool against the second side of the composite body in a second region;
- placing a first consolidation pressure membrane having at least two faces against the second side of the composite body in the first region;
- placing a second consolidation pressure membrane having at least two faces against the first side of the composite body in the second region;
- and
- applying a pressure to the first consolidation pressure membrane and the second consolidation pressure membrane, thereby applying a pressure to the composite body to cause it to consolidate.
A process for consolidating a body of a composite material having a nonplanar shape, comprising the steps of:
- furnishing a composite material body having a structure formed of unconsolidated plies of reinforcement fibers embedded in a matrix, the shape of the body being complexly curved so that in a first region a first side of the composite material forms the concave face of the curve and in a second region a second side of the composite material forms the concave face of the curve;
- then,
- placing a first rigid tool against the first side of the composite material in the first region;
- placing a second rigid tool against the second side of the composite material in the second region;
- placing a first consolidation pressure membrane against the second side of the composite material in the first region;
- placing a second consolidation pressure membrane against the first side of the composite material in the first region;
- and
- applying a pressure to the first consolidation pressure membrane and to the second consolidation pressure membrane, thereby applying a pressure to the composite material to cause it to consolidate.
A process for consolidating a composite material body, comprising the steps of:
- furnishing a composite material body having a structure formed of unconsolidated plies of a matrix having reinforcement fibers embedded therein, the body having a first side and an opposing second side;
- then,
- debulking the body by the steps of:
- placing a first rigid tool against the first side of the composite material body in a first region,
- placing a second rigid tool against the first side of the composite material body in a second region,
- placing a debulking pressure membrane against the second side of the composite material body in the first and second regions,
- applying pressure to the debulking pressure membrane to cause the composite material body to at least partially consolidate, and
- removing the debulking pressure membrane and the second rigid tool;
- placing a third rigid tool against the second side of the composite material body in the second region thereof;
- placing a first consolidation pressure membrane against the second side of the composite material body in the first region thereof;
- placing a second consolidation pressure membrane against the first side of the composite material body in the second region thereof;
- and
- applying pressure to the first consolidation pressure membrane and to the second consolidation pressure membrane while simultaneously heating the composite material body, to cause the composite material to further consolidate and cure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.