Back to results
US 8,808,479 B2Granted
Method of making and using shape memory polymer composite patches
AssigneeCornerstone Research Group, Inc.
InventorPatrick J. Hood
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of repairing a composite component having a damaged area including: laying a composite patch over the damaged area; activating the shape memory polymer resin to easily and quickly mold said patch to said damaged area; deactivating said shape memory polymer so that said composite patch retains the molded shape; and bonding said composite patch to said damaged part.
Claims17
A method for repairing manufactured parts having a damaged area comprising:
- a. preforming a repair material into a desired shape, said repair material comprising a shape memory polymer, wherein said shape memory polymer is selected from the group consisting of styrene shape memory polymer, vinyl ester shape memory polymer, polyurethane, polyethylene homopolymer, styrene-butadiene, polyisoprene, copolymers of stearyl acrylate and acrylic acid or methyl acrylate, norbornene or dimethaneoctahydronaphthaline homopolymers or copolymers;
- b. activating said shape memory polymer such that said preformed repair material becomes soft;
- c. deforming said preformed repair material into a shape that is molded to the damaged area, wherein said deforming is achieved by mechanical means;
- d. deactivating said shape memory polymer while maintaining said repair material in its deformed state;
- and
- e. bonding said deformed repair material to said damaged area of said manufactured part prior to or after deactivation, wherein one or more of steps b, c, d, and e can be iteratively repeated in any order to ensure that the repair material is molded to the damaged area.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.