General Electric Company

Brian Dominic Stephens

Michael Dominic Schulte

Eric Joseph Aho

Michael Joseph O'Brien

Ming Xie

Wendy Wen-Ling Lin

Peter Kennedy Davis

Curt Brian Curtis

Elliott Keller Schulte

Randall Maurice Prather

James Timothy Sanchez

Johnny Ray Gentry

Scott Alan Garten

Processes for producing near net-shape panels and panels formed thereby. The processes include forming a preform to comprise a stack of multiple plies that contain an uncured expandable foam material. The preform has regions that differ from each other by the number and/or volume of the plies therein. The preform and its plies are then cured within a restricted volume to produce a near net-shape panel. The curing step causes the expandable foam material to expand, and the restricted volume is sized so that the number and volume of the plies within the regions of the preform cause zones within the panel to have different densities and/or thicknesses.

Near net-shape panels and processes therefor

Polymer-based materials and processes suitable for producing panels, for example, panels for use in a fan shroud abradable seal of a turbofan engine. Such a process includes introducing constituents of an expandable foam material into a continuous forming apparatus that continuously compounds the constituents into a partially-cured compounded polymeric material, which is then continuously formed with the continuous forming apparatus to produce a continuous form having a constant cross-sectional shape transverse to a continuous forming direction of the continuous forming apparatus. A portion of the continuous form is then deformed to produce a preform, and the preform is cured within a restricted volume to cause the preform to expand and produce the panel.

Panels and processes therefor

Methods for making a self-conforming non-crimp fabric involving tailoring at least a first parameter to anchor the fabric and at least a second parameter to provide conformability of the fabric, the first and second parameters selected from stitch type, stitch spacing, stitch density, stitch material, stitch weight, stitch tension, and combinations of the same.

Methods for improving conformability of non-crimp fabric and contoured composite components made using such methods

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Cincinnati, OH, United States of America

Brian Dominic Stephens