Paper Composite Panel
Abstract
Letterkenny Army Depot (LEAD) in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, repairs or replaces wall panels on Humvee mounted Chem/Bio units. The material used on these panels consists of two very thin aluminum sheets. Between the aluminum sheets is paper honeycomb bonded together with epoxy resin. This thin sandwich structure does not provide the support required for mounting brackets or other attachments. The process was to drill 0.25-inch to 0.36-inch diameter holes, remove an additional 0.5-inch radius of paper honeycomb material by hand from around the hole, and fill the resulting cavity with resin and a threaded fastener. Approximately 200 holes are drilled per unit. The problem occurred when attempting to remove the paper particles after the initial hole had been drilled. This was a very cumbersome and time-consuming operation. LEAD asked if the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) could provide or recommend a solution to reduce the time required to remove of the paper honeycomb particles. NCDMM experimented with various tooling similar to that which LEAD was using. To eliminate the use of tweezers to remove the paper particles from the hole, a process was developed to turn the paper remains into very small particles or dust that could be vacuumed from the cavity. A hand held high-speed (25,000 revolutions per minute [rpm]) spindle type tool and a special cutter were tested. These proved to form a viable solution. The paper was cut into dust and was vacuumed out with little effort. This eliminated the hand removal of additional paper prior to resin application.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 18, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA481961
Entities
Organizations
- National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining