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US 8,986,487 B2Granted
Consolidated composite pre-form
AssigneeVestas Wind Systems A/S
InventorsKnud Stenbaek Nielsen, Henning Schroder
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a consolidated composite pre-form for reinforcing a composite structure, said pre-form comprising fibers and a binding agent, said pre-form having a sheet-like structure with an upper major surface and a lower major surface, and said pre-form being provided with recesses on at least a portion of at least one of said major surfaces.
Claims25
A method of producing a pre-form, comprising:
- providing a layer of a binding agent;
- providing a fibre layer of fibres or fibre tows on the layer of a binding agent to produce a delimited longitudinal sheet-like pre-form of fibres and a binding agent, the pre-form having an upper major surface and a lower major surface;
- applying a vacuum to consolidate the pre-form by removing air from the pre-form, and imprinting recesses into at least one of the major surfaces of the pre-form by application of pressure to the at least one of the major surfaces during the consolidation, the binding agent remaining uncured or only partially cured after consolidation, and
- wherein at least one of the recesses extends at least from a longitudinal centreline to a longitudinal edge of the pre-form, and
- wherein the uncured or only partially cured binding agent in the consolidated pre-form is adapted to enable additional bending and shaping of the pre-form during placement and fitting into a composite structure to be reinforced by the pre-form.
2 more elements
A method of producing a reinforced composite structure, comprising:
- providing a first longitudinal reinforcing pre-form comprising fibres and a binding agent;
- providing a second longitudinal reinforcing pre-form, comprising fibres and a binding agent, overlapping the first pre-form in an overlap area;
- applying a vacuum to consolidate the first and second pre-forms and imprinting recesses into a major surface of at least one of the first and second pre-forms by application of pressure to the major surface during the consolidation, which recesses form channels in an interface between the first and second pre-forms in the overlap area, wherein at least one of the recesses extends at least between a longitudinal centreline and a longitudinal edge of the pre-form;
- and
- applying a vacuum to consolidate the first and second pre-forms together to become the structure, such that air trapped between the first and second pre-forms in the overlap area may be evacuated from the overlap area through the channels, the binding agent in the first and second pre-forms remaining uncured or only partially cured after consolidation,
- wherein the uncured or only partially cured binding agent in the first and second pre-forms is adapted to enable additional bending and shaping of the pre-forms during placement and fitting into the composite structure to be reinforced by the pre-forms.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.