Development of a High-Temperature Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding Testbed for Aerospace Grade Composites

Abstract

Composite materials are lightweight and strong, providing a winning combination that propels composites to new areas of respect in the manufacturing industry. Manufacturers are attempting to find more applications where composites can be used. For instance, composite materials are being looked at for use as replacements for conventional materials in high-temperature applications. Traditionally, hand lay-up prepreg/autoclave techniques have been used to fabricate polymeric composites for applications that require high-temperature resistance. Yet, high manufacturing costs have limited their usage. In recent years, vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) has proven to be an affordable process for manufacturing large composite structures, when compared to conventional RTM and hand lay-up prepreg/autoclave techniques. Manufacturing high-quality, large composite parts for high temperature applications using VARTM technique will significantly reduce costs due to low cost tooling, flexible part integration and larger part dimension.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 10, 2005
Accession Number
ADA440199

Entities

People

  • Ben Wang

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Chemistry
  • Composite Material Fabrication
  • Composite Materials
  • Composite Structures
  • Engineering
  • Fabrication
  • Manufacturing
  • Materials
  • Materials Laboratories
  • Materials Processing
  • Materials Science
  • Materials Testing
  • Mechanical Properties
  • Moldings
  • Resin Transfer Molding
  • Resins
  • Structural Components

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Economics
  • Reinforced Composite Materials

Technology Areas

  • Space