The Boeing Company

Adrian Mouritz

Christopher A Howe

Michelle Louise Gee

Kariza Thea Martin

Thomas Wilson

Justin Hicks

Stuart Arthur Bateman

Jacquelynn Xueting Tian

A braided carbon structure and methods of forming and processing are presented. The braided carbon structure comprises axial tows comprising carbon filaments; braid tows at a braid angle relative to the axial tows, the braid tows comprising carbon filaments; and thermoplastic material within at least one of the axial tows or the braid tows, wherein the thermoplastic material makes up less than 40 of each of the at least one of the axial tows or the braid tows.

Braided composite products comprising thermoplastic material

A composite article including a plurality of layers each comprising bundles of fibers separated by spaces; pins bonded to a side of at least one of bundles and extending or built through the spaces between the layers; and a resin combined with the layers and the pin. The pins form a physical barrier preventing or reducing propagation of cracks in an x-y plane of the composite article.

Composite toughening using three dimensional printed thermoplastic pins

A drop draw and extrusion method that creates anchor points around, within, or around and within, the region where a two dimensional fibrous architecture is deposited. Between the anchor points, a nozzle translates at high speeds to draw, extrude, or draw and extrude (depending on the print settings), a filament from the nozzle and build a two dimensional network of filaments connected by the anchors. Webbed architectures fabricated using the methods described herein exhibit superior structural properties.

Drop draw/extrude (DD/E) printing method

A composite article including fiber tows and a network including material drawn or pulled between the fiber tows. The network forms a physical barrier reducing propagation of cracks in the composite article. Exemplary structures described herein are the first to use a novel cellular architecture to toughen resin infused composites and create a continuous through thickness reinforcement that does not induce fiber breakage.

Growing community of inventors

Melbourne, Australia

Adrian Mouritz