US 9,751,287 B2Granted

Low energy process for making curved sandwich structures with little or no residual stress

AssigneeGM Global Technology Operations LLC

InventorsJacob M. Hundley, Nilesh D. Mankame, Eric C. Clough, Alan J. Jacobsen, Elisabeth J. Berger

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Abstract

A process for fabricating a curved beam including a micro-truss structure. In one embodiment, the process includes fabricating the micro-truss structure on a bottom facesheet, where the micro-truss structure is only partially cured so that it is readily bendable, and then forming the partially cured micro-truss structure and bottom facesheet over a curved fixture, where the partially cured micro-truss structure is then fully cured and hardened to its final curved state. A top facesheet is then adhered to a top surface of the micro-truss structure. In an alternate embodiment, a curved bottom facesheet is forced flat against a fixture and the micro-truss structure is formed while the bottom facesheet is secured to the fixture to a partially cured state. The bottom facesheet is then released from the fixture, which causes it to return to its curved configuration causing the micro-truss structure to bend.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method for fabricating a curved sandwich structure, said method comprising:

providing a flat bottom facesheet, wherein the bottom facesheet is comprised of a curable material in a partially cured format so it is easily bendable;
positioning a mold in contact with the bottom facesheet so that the mold and the bottom facesheet define an enclosure;
filling the enclosure with a liquid photo-monomer resin;
positioning a mask with patterned apertures relative to the mold;
irradiating the liquid photo-monomer resin in the enclosure through the apertures in the mask with collimated UV light from a plurality of sources to form a partially cured micro-truss structure having a plurality of interconnected self-propagating photopolymer waveguides in a lattice configuration coupled to the bottom facesheet;
removing uncured liquid photo-monomer resin from the mold;
removing the mold from the partially cured micro-truss structure and the bottom facesheet;
conforming the bottom facesheet to a curved fixture so that the bottom facesheet is bent to the shape of the curved fixture and the partially cured micro-truss structure bends in association with the bottom facesheet;
fully curing the micro-truss structure and the bottom facesheet to a rigid state while they are conformed to the shape of the fixture;
and
attaching a top facesheet having a complimentary curvature to the now curved micro-truss structure and bottom facesheet to form the sandwich structure.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/255,389Filed 17 Apr 2014
Published: US 2015/0298443 A122 Oct 2015
Granted: 5 Sep 2017
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification16 codes

B32B 37/02
Methods or apparatus for laminating, e.g. by curing or by ultrasonic bonding: characterised by a sequence of laminating steps, e.g. by adding new…
B32B 15/04
Layered products comprising a layer of metal: comprising metal as the main or only constituent of a layer, which is next to another layer of the…
B32B 27/06
Layered products comprising a layer of synthetic resin: as the main or only constituent of a layer, which is next to another layer of the same or…
B32B 27/20
Characterised by the use of special additives: using fillers, pigments, thixotroping agents

Family

US 2015/0298443 A1Pre-grant publication · published 22 Oct 2015
US 9,751,287 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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