Honeywell International Inc.

University of Notre Dame Du Lac

Bam Inc.

Advanced Carbon Technologies, LLC

Simpson, Allen

Allen Simpson

Mark L La Forest

Slawomir T Fryska

Alexander Mukasyan

Neil Murdie

Barry P Soos

Douglas J Steinke

Mark L LaForest

Manuel Koucouthakis

Roger L Klinedinst

Charles D D'Amico

Peter Franz Braunisch

James F Stevenson

Thomas Heinrich Siegmund

Mark Criss James

Richard Bye

Raymond J Cipra

David R Cole

Nabil Abu Gharbieh

R Stevan Coursey

Gregory Vanderheyden

Adam Mather

Richard W Smith

Marcia A Wright

Phillip D Johnson

A continuous fiber brake rotor preform and apparatuses and methods for manufacturing the preform are disclosed herein. The preform comprises a plurality of continuous fiber streams or filaments forming a substantially helical structure having layers or flights compressed together in the preform's longitudinal direction. Each continuous fiber stream or filament may comprise the same or different types of fiber, extends substantially between longitudinally disposed preform ends, and resides laterally adjacent to another continuous fiber stream or filament within each layer or flight of the helical structure. The radial distance between each continuous fiber stream or filament and the preform's longitudinal axis varies with angular location about the longitudinal axis. The preform further comprises web or z-direction fiber interspersed within the helical structure with certain of the web or z-direction fibers and continuous fiber streams or filaments extending at least partially in the longitudinal direction between the preform's layers or flights.

Continuous fiber brake rotor preform and apparatuses and methods for manufacturing same

The present disclosure describes brake rotor preforms and brake pads configured to reduce fracturing and failure of brake rotors by distributing the axial force applied during braking across butt joints between abutting segments of preforms and rotors manufactured therefrom. The preforms comprise a spiral annular structure formed about a longitudinal axis from a plurality of carbon fiber precursor tow segments having a partial annular shape. Each segment is asymmetrical when viewed in the longitudinal axis direction and configured so planes defined by the segment's ends are never coplanar with planes extending radially from the longitudinal axis. The brake pads have a partial annular shape and ends adapted to prevent planes defined by the ends from being coplanar during use with a plane extending radially from a brake rotor longitudinal axis.

Non-woven, fracture reducing brake rotor preforms and pads

The disclosure describes a low density cloth preform, and apparatuses and methods for manufacturing the same. The low density cloth preform has a lower density than other preforms manufactured using prior apparatuses and methods, thereby rendering the low density cloth preform more amenable to the addition of matrix carbon thereto through the use of less expensive carbon sources and more rapid processes for adding matrix carbon. The apparatuses and methods for manufacturing the low density cloth preform comprise preform needling machines configured and preform needling processes operable to provide a more uniform and lesser needling depth with the result being a preform having a lower density. The preform needling machines utilize foam bases formed from resilient materials having appropriate rebound rates, arrangements of barbed needles in one or more groups and needling stages, and positioning of the barbed needles to minimize deflection of the foam bases and preform material.

Low density cloth preform and methods of manufacturing same

A brake disc rotor or stator is manufactured with slots in the interior face of the disc. A paste comprised of a fine powder of a carbide-forming metal along with fine carbon powder, suspended in an organic binder, is applied to the force-bearing areas in the rotor slot faces or the stator slot faces. The disc is then placed into a furnace in a nitrogen atmosphere and heated to the ignition temperature. When the furnace reaches the ignition temperature, a combustion reaction begins that creates a molten liquid ceramic material on the slot face. Upon cooling, the resulting brake disc has a tough, hard, abrasion-resistant ceramic surface on the portion of the brake disc slot that bears pressure.

Reactive sintering to eliminate metal inserts in carbon-carbon brake discs

In the manufacture of carbon-carbon composite brake discs, migration of anti-oxidant substances into the friction surfaces is prevented by limiting or eliminating surface porosity in the carbon-carbon composite brake materials. The method includes infusing a suitable resin into pores in surface layers of the carbon-carbon composite disc and then charring the resin-infused disc to convert the resin in the pores to pyrolytic carbon. The resin may be infused into the carbon disc by submerging the disc in a molten resin. Prior to submerging the disc in the molten resin, the disc may subjected to a vacuum to remove air from the pores. While the disc is submerged in the molten resin, the pressure in the pressurizable vessel may increased to force the molten resin into the open porosity of the disc.

Preventing carbon AO migration by limiting surface porosity

Methods of making a carbon-carbon composite preforms, particularly suitable as brake discs in aircraft landing systems, by combining titanium carbide particles ranging in size from 0.01 to 10 microns in diameter, resinous binder, and carbon fibers or carbon fiber precursors in a mold, and subsequently subjecting the combined components to pressure and heat to carbonize the resinous binder by methods, thereby providing the carbon-carbon composite preform having particulate titanium carbide uniformly distributed throughout its mass. Prior to combining the titanium carbide and the binder with the fibers in this process, the particulate titanium carbide may be mixed with liquid binder, the resulting TiC/binder mixture may then solidified, and the resulting solid TiC/binder mixture may be ground into a fine powder for use in the process. Also, compositions for preparing a carbon-carbon composite friction materials, and methods of improving wear and dynamic stability in a carbon-carbon composite brake discs.

Titanium carbide as a friction and wear modifier in friction materials

Method of joining a carbon-carbon composite piecetogether with a metal insert, e.g. in the manufacture of aircraft brake discs. The method includes the steps of: providing a carbon-carbon composite pieceand a metal insert, wherein the metal inserthas a surface that is complementary to a surface of said carbon-carbon composite piece; providing a layer of a mixture of titanium powder and carbon powder on the first complementary mating surface; arranging the powder layer such that a second complementary mating surface is matched to the complementary mating surface, thereby forming a construct of the carbon-carbon composite piece, the powder layer, and the metal insert; placing the construct into a press and applying pressure to the construct to press together the carbon-carbon composite piece and the metal insert joined at their complementary surfaces; and applying an electrical current to the powder in the construct to initiate a metal-carbon reaction, thereby bonding the carbon-carbon composite piecetogether the metal insert. The titanium powder particles may be from 25 to 100 microns in diameter, and the carbon powder (e.g., graphite particles) may be 0.1 to 1 microns in diameter.

Combustion synthesis to bond metal inserts to C-C composite surfaces

A method for the manufacture of carbon-carbon composite brake discs comprises (a) heat treating a carbon-carbon composite preform in the shape of a brake disc at 1600-2540&#xb0; C., (b) directly following heat treating, subjecting the heat-treated preform to Chemical Vapor Deposition/Chemical Vapor Infiltration processing, (c) infiltrating the preform with an isotropic low to medium char-yield pitch derived from coal tar, employing Vacuum  Pitch Infiltration processing or Resin Transfer Molding Processing, (d) stabilizing and carbonizing the pitch-infiltrated preform (e) machining the surfaces of the resulting carbonized preform, and (f) repeating steps (c) through (e) at least two additional times to raise the density of the carbon-carbon composite preform to at least approximately 1.75 g/cc.

CVI followed by coal tar pitch densification by VPI

An apparatus for bonding a first carbon composite to a second carbon composite through a reactant layer includes a housing, and a pair of conductive press plates electrically isolated from the housing. The press plates are adapted to position the two parts to be bonded with a reactant layer therebetween. The press plates are subjected to an electrical potential and a clamping force, sufficient to initiate a combustion reaction that creates a molten ceramic to bond together the carbon-carbon composites.

Bonding carbon-carbon composites through a reactant layer

A metal powder is applied to the surface of the area of a carbon-carbon composite brake disc to be protected against migration of antioxidant. The metal powder may be titanium powder or tungsten powder. A chemical reaction between the metal powder and carbon is then initiated by heating the powder-coated brake to the ignition temperature via application of electric current (Joule preheating) or by heating it in a furnace. Upon combustion, the metal particles react with carbon in the composite, forming liquid carbide that flows into pores of the composite brake disc to be protected.

Titanium carbide or tungsten carbide with combustion synthesis to block porosity in C-C brake discs for antioxidation protection

A brake disk () includes an annular core () formed from a plurality of non-annular pieces (), a first friction disk () mounted on a first side of the annular core (), a second friction disk () mounted on a second side of the core () opposite from the first friction disk (), and at least one fastener () connecting the first and second friction disks () to the core (). Also a method of assembling a brake disk from a core and friction elements.

Brake assembly having multi-piece core and replaceable friction surfaces

A method of manufacturing pitch-based carbon-carbon composite useful as a brake disc, includes (a) providing annular carbon fiber brake disc preform; (b) heat-treating the carbon fiber preform; (c) infiltrating the carbon fiber preform with pitch feedstock by VPI or RTM processing; (d) carbonizing the pitch-infiltrated carbon fiber preform; (e) repeating steps (c) and (d) to achieve a density in the carbon fiber preform of approximately 1.5 g/cc to below 1.7 g/cc; and (f) densifying the preform by CVI/CVD processing to a density higher than 1.7 g/cc. Employing lower cost VPI and/or RTM processing in early pitch densification cycles and using more expensive CVI/CVD processing only in the last densification cycle provides C-C composites in which the pitch-based components resist pullout, resulting in a longer wearing composite.

Densification of C-C composites with pitches followed by CVI/CVD

Method for producing carbon-carbon composite brake discs by: (a) providing annular nonwoven carbon fiber brake disc preforms; (b) carbonizing the brake disc preforms; (c) densifying the carbonized preforms by CVD/CVI (chemical vapor deposition/chemical vapor infiltration); (d) densifying the products of step (c) with isotropic or mesophase pitch by VPI (vacuum pitch infiltration) or RTM (resin transfer molding) processing; (e) carbonizing the preforms to remove non-carbon volatiles from the pitch and to open porosity in the pitch-infused preforms; (f) densifying the products of step (e) with isotropic or mesophase pitch by VPI or RTM processing; (g) carbonizing the preforms to remove non-carbon volatiles from pitch and to open porosity in the pitch-infused preforms; and (h) heat-treating the resulting pitch-densified carbon-carbon composite brake disc preforms. This manufacturing approach reduces lot-to-lot variability in friction performance of the resulting carbon-carbon composite brake discs.

Method for reducing variability in carbon-carbon composites

Method for chemical bonding of fiberglass fibers to steel surfaces to prepare the steel for bonding with carbon composite material. This fiber-bonding step greatly increases the strength of the subsequent metal-composite bond. The fiberglass fibers which are chemically bonded to the steel provide a high surface area interface to entangle with carbon fibers in the composite component, and thereby inhibit crack formation on the boundary surface between the steel and composite components when they are bonded together.

Growing community of inventors

Buchanan, MI, United States of America

Allen Simpson