Highly integrated infused box made of composite material and method of manufacturing

An aircraft box made of composite material, the aircraft box extending in a transverse direction and a longitudinal direction and comprising:

• a plurality of transverse reinforcing parts, each of the plurality of transverse reinforcing parts having a length that extends in the transverse direction;
• a plurality of longitudinal reinforcing parts, each of the plurality of longitudinal reinforcing parts having a length that extends in the longitudinal direction;
• a first semibox comprising a first skin portion and the plurality of transverse reinforcing parts, wherein all of the transverse reinforcing parts of the aircraft box are bonded to the first skin portion;
• and
• a second semibox assembled to the first semibox and comprising a second skin portion bonded to the plurality of longitudinal reinforcing parts.

A method of manufacturing an aircraft box made of composite material, the method comprising:

• preparing a base tool for an injection process and a dry automated tape laying-up (ATL) of ribs, a first skin, a second skin and stringers, wherein preparing the base tool comprises cleaning the base tool and applying a demoulding agent to the base tool;
• laying-up the first and second skins, the stringers, front and rear spars and the ribs by laminating the first and second skins, the stringers, the front and rear spars and the ribs with dry fibre and providing a binder between the plies;
• forming the stringers into an H form and then cutting the H form into two T shapes;
• forming the front and rear spars and ribs into a J shape;
• manufacturing a first semibox, the manufacturing of the first semibox comprising:
• placing the first skin on the base tool;
• placing the ribs over the first skin;
• placing rigid rib web tooling modules between the ribs so that the face of each rib that does not contain an upper flange of the rib is in contact with one of the sides of the rigid rib web tooling modules;
• covering the first skin, the ribs and the rigid rib web tooling modules with a vacuum bag;
• infusing the first semibox with resin using Liquid Resin Infusion (LRI) technology;
• curing the resin with auto-heating tools or inside an oven;
• performing a demoulding step once the curing has finished, the demoulding step including removing the vacuum bag and demoulding the rigid rib web tooling modules;
• and
• inspecting the first semibox ultrasonically and dimensionally;
• manufacturing a second semibox, the manufacturing of the second semibox comprising:
• placing the second skin on the base tool;
• placing the stringers and the front and rear spars over the second skin;
• placing flexible stringer web tooling modules with resin inlets on the stringers;
• placing rigid spar web tooling modules between the spars;
• covering the second skin, the rigid spar web tooling modules and the flexible stringer web tooling modules;
• infusing the second semibox with resin using LRI technology;
• curing the resin with the auto-heating tools or inside the oven;
• performing a demoulding step once the curing has finished, the demoulding step including removing the vacuum bag and demoulding the flexible stringer web tooling modules and the rigid spar web tooling modules;
• inspecting the first semibox ultrasonically and dimensionally;
• and
• assembling the first semibox to the second semibox by drilling and riveting joints between the first and second semiboxes.