Apparatus and technique for making carbon brake discs
AssigneeAircraft Braking Systems Corporation
InventorsWilliam D. Thompson, Theodore W. Sundburg, David R. Snyder
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for making carbon/carbon composite discs for an aircraft brake employs a continuous feeding of fiber strands into a mold. Water is then combined with the fibers and the fibers are compressed to form a moisturized mat or preform. The fibers are then needled such that the fibers within the mat or preform extend in radial, circumferential, and axial directions. The mat or preform is then subjected to densification. The resulting disc is of total carbon construction. The water introduced into the mat during the processing serves as both a sacrificial binder and a lubricant during the fabrication.
Claims12
A method for making carbon/carbon composite discs for aircraft brakes, comprising:
- feeding fibers into a mold;
- introducing a binder onto said fibers in the mold;
- compressing the said fibers in the mold to form a compressed mat;
- reciprocatingly driving needles into the compressed mat;
- and
- densifying the needled compressed mat by chemical vapor infiltration.
A method for making carbon/carbon composite discs for aircraft brakes, comprising:
- feeding fibers into an annular mold as a plurality of interconnected ringlets, each such ringlet laying in a substantially radial/circumferential plane in the mold;
- moisturizing the fibers in the annular mold with a liquid binder;
- compressing the moisturized fibers, forming a compressed annular mat;
- needling the compressed annular mat, displacing certain of the moisturized fibers from the ringlets in the radial/circumferential plane into axial direction;
- and
- densifying the needled compressed annular mat by chemical vapor infiltration.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.