Study of Low-Cost Fabrication Methods for Aerospace Composite Materials.

Abstract

Flat and hat section specimens of graphite/epoxy composite materials have been fabricated by the resin bath or wet pultrusion process and submitted to NASA-Langley. This demonstrated the feasibility of incorporating cross-plied graphite fiber reinforcements in conjunction with epoxy resin systems in the wet pultrusion process. However, the thickness constraints of the pultrusion process, the lack of dimensional stability of the crossply materials and equipment limitations affect the quality of the hat section pultrusions. The wet pultrusion process shows promise of being a low cost method for producing composite parts with constant cross section along the length. A cost analysis showed at least 80 percent cost reduction for the hat section and 40 percent for flat panel by pultrusion over the conventional manual and automated lay-up.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1978
Accession Number
ADA304745

Entities

People

  • Harvey H. Chung

Organizations

  • Lockheed Martin

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Composite Material Fabrication
  • Composite Materials
  • Cost Analysis
  • Cost Reductions
  • Costs
  • Epoxy Composites
  • Epoxy Resins
  • Fabrication
  • Fiber Reinforcement
  • Fiberglass
  • Graphitic Materials
  • Materials
  • Materials Processing
  • Physical Properties
  • Pultrusion
  • Thickness
  • Unidirectional

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Reinforced Composite Materials

Technology Areas

  • Space