The Boeing Company

Kari P Larkin

James M Kestner

Andrew M Hopkins

John R Henry

Thomas Dean Wilson

Joshua P Carlsen

Taylor M Williamson

Jeff D Eastin

Robert D Dennis

Bianca M Moran

Isaac K Jacob

Hong Hue Tat

Yuan-Jye Wu

Chelsey Elizibeth Henry

Jeremy Robert Larkin

A processing apparatus such as a heating and/or debulking apparatus that may be used to debulk a plurality of uncured composite layers to form an article such as an aircraft component may include a plurality of interconnected smart susceptor heater blankets. The plurality of smart susceptor heater blankets may be connected in series or in parallel, and may be controlled to uniformly heat the component during formation. The plurality of smart susceptor heater blankets may be supported by a deployment system that lowers the plurality of smart susceptor heater blankets toward, and raises the plurality of smart susceptor heater blankets away from, a working surface.

Integrated smart susceptor heater blanket and vacuum bag deployment system for large composite skin laminate debulk

In an example, a method for forming a composite part includes, based on a part specification, cutting layers of material in a sequence and positioning the layers to form a stack. For each layer, after positioning the layer and before cutting a next layer in the sequence, the method includes (i) scanning along a length of the layer to determine an image, (ii) determining, based on the image, at least two edges of the layer, (iii) determining, based on the edges, a measured width at locations along the length of the layer, (iv) comparing the measured width at each location to a target width at the location, (v) deciding, based on the comparison, whether to adjust the production process, and (vi) if the decision is to adjust the production process, then adjusting the production process based on the comparison. The part specification specifies the target width at each location.

Systems and methods for forming a composite part based on volume

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West Bountiful, UT, United States of America

Kari P Larkin