Availability of Aerospace Rayon for SRM Nozzle Insulators,
Abstract
For approximately 30 years, the nozzles of solid rocket motors (SRM) have used an aerospace grade of rayon as a precursor for carbon fabric reinforcement in phenolic composites employed as ablative insulators. Rayon has been the industry mainstay ever since and modern nozzle designs have been dependent upon the properties of carbon, fabric/phenolic, or graphite fabric/phenolic composites derived from this material. Over the years, the industry has been dependent upon a sole source supplier. The present supplier, North American Rayon Corporation, is the last surviving rayon manufacturer in the country. Like many aerospace suppliers, it has been affected by cutbacks in defense procurement and is planning to discontinue the production of the aerospace grade rayon. At this time, production is continuing on back orders for life-of-type buys. These orders will be completed by the end of 1996 at which time the domestic source for continuous filament rayon will disappear. Alternatives to rayon have been evaluated as a carbon fabric precursor; however, the poor performance of demonstration hardware using these materials has revealed that none of these alternatives represent a drop-in replacement. The continuing availability of rayon for aerospace applications is now being studied by ajoint NASA/DoD team.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1996
- Accession Number
- ADA318772
Entities
People
- R. C. Rossi
- W. C. Wong