Back to results
US 8,894,801 B2Granted
Composite structures having composite-to-metal joints and method for making the same
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsKenneth Harlan Griess, Gary E. Georgeson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A composite structure comprises stacked sets of laminated fiber reinforced resin plies and metal sheets. Edges of the resin plies and metal sheets are interleaved to form a composite-to-metal joint connecting the resin plies with the metal sheets.
Claims15
A method of fabricating a composite structure, comprising:
- forming a multi-layer composite lay-up having a fiber reinforced composite resin portion and a metal portion, including forming a composite-to-metal finger joint between the composite resin portion and the metal portion of the lay-up, wherein the composite resin portion comprises laminated plies of fiber reinforced resin, wherein the metal portion consists of metal sheets and an adhesive layer between each of the metal sheets;
- and
- forming a transition section between the composite resin portion and the metal portion, the transition section including staggered overlaps between the laminated plies and the metal sheets, the transition section configured such that corresponding first ends of each of the metal sheets abut corresponding second ends of the laminated plies, and the staggered overlaps comprise a waveguide configured to support non-destructive evaluations of a bond quality in the composite structure.
A method of laying up a structure, comprising:
- laying up a first plurality of composite plies, the first plurality of composite plies having a first combined thickness, the first plurality of composite plies having a first end;
- laying up a first metal layer, the first metal layer having a second end abutting the first end at a first interface;
- placing a first adhesive layer on the metal layer, the first adhesive layer and the first metal layer together having a second combined thickness equal to the first combined thickness;
- laying up a second plurality of composite plies over the first plurality of composite plies, the second plurality of composite plies having a third combined thickness, the second plurality of composite plies having a third end;
- laying up a second metal layer over the first adhesive layer, the second metal layer having a fourth end, the third end abutting the fourth end at a second interface, the first interface and the second interface staggered with respect to each other.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.