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US 9,873,231 B2Granted
Methods to fabricate needled preforms with randomly oriented short length carbon fibers
AssigneeGoodrich Corporation
InventorJean-Francois Le Costaouec
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for fabricating a short length carbon fiber preform with a through thickness reinforcement is disclosed herein. The starting media for fabricating a net shape (e.g., annular disc) may meet specific requirements including a sufficient fiber volume and a binding mechanism compatible with the needle-punching process.
Claims12
A method comprising:
- opening, blending and webbing in random fiber orientation a plurality of short length carbon fiber bundles and a thermoplastic binder material to form a blend, wherein the short length carbon fiber bundles comprise short length carbon fibers less than about 3 inches in length;
- locally applying heat and pressure to an annular portion of the blend of the plurality of short length carbon fiber bundles and the thermoplastic binder material to form a partially melted annular shaped preform section;
- removing from the blend an excess portion not partially melted following local application of heat and pressure to form a resulting annular preform section and capturing the excess portion of the blend for reprocessing;
- and
- needling a portion of the resulting annular preform section.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.