Hercules Corporation

Alliant Techsystems Inc.

Kenneth A Lowe

William T McCarvill

Michael R McCloy

David J Boll

David A Crosby

Fiber laminations with a resin therein are advanced to substantial cure in situ while resin-impregnated fiber (in the form of individual tows, a band thereof, or a tape) is being placed on a workpiece on the mandrel by preheating the fiber in a temperature range of 100-700&deg; F. for partially advancing the cure of the resin in the fiber, shaping the fiber to the desired shape, and laying up the partially advanced fiber on the workpiece on the mandrel while simultaneously nip-point heating the fiber in an area proximate to the point where the fiber is being placed on the workpiece. A plurality of parameters are monitored during this placement in order to control the nip-point heating so that the resin in the fiber is substantially cured while the fiber is being placed on the workpiece.

Cure-on-the-fly system

A resin composition especially suited to the resin transfer molding and wet filament winding processes is composed of epoxide compounds and one or more aromatic amine hardeners wherein the blend of epoxide compounds is (i) a diglycidyl ether of the reaction product of a bisphenol and a blend of (a) a diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A other than that of (i) and (b) a halohydrin having about two epoxy groups per molecule, (ii) a copolymer of ethyl hexyl acrylate and glycidyl methacrylate and (iii) a neopentyl glycol digylcidyl ether. This composition has a low viscosity, and when cured, exhibits high toughness and mechanical strengths useful in making high performance composites.

Growing community of inventors

West Valley City, UT, United States of America

Kenneth A Lowe