Reinhold Industries, Inc.

Gordon A Petersen

Philip H Milner, Jr

Gerald W Gore

The present invention is a method of producing perforated articles. A woven material, such as woven graphite, is impregnated with a curable high flow resin, such as epoxy or BMI resin, and placed on a pressure transmitting pad which has stud holes positioned and sized so as to permit the studs of a flexible mold to fit therein. The material can be smoothed over the pad using a roller. The studded flexible mold, which can be of polypropylene, polyethylene or PEEK, is then applied, pushing the studs through the woven material and into the stud holes. The pressure transmitting pad is removed and the flexible mold with the woven material thereon is formed to a desired contour, such as through placing the mold on a forming tool, followed by partially curing the resin impregnated in the woven material until the impregnated resin material has sufficient structural integrity to permit removal from the mold without permanent deformation. The partially cured woven material can then be removed from the mold and the curing finished. The process may be modified to create multi-layer laminate structures through the application of additional layers prior to curing. The process may be further modified to create larger articles by joining a plurality of mold sections.

Growing community of inventors

Fountain Valley, CA, United States of America

Gordon A Petersen