The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 24, 1999
Filed:
Jul. 10, 1997
Ken K Yasui, Huntington Beach, CA (US);
McDonnell Douglas Corporation, Huntington Beach, CA (US);
Abstract
An airfoil-shaped structure having a continuous, seamless, structurally reinforced, leading edge is fabricated using a superplastic forming/diffusion bonding process which results in a simpler and more cost effective structure. The airfoil-shaped structure includes a core assembly having welded together core sheets and a facial component being defined by a face sheet having a 180.degree. bend therein so that the two face sheet ends are aligned. To fabricate the airfoil-shaped structure the core assembly is inserted inside the facial component, thereby forming an intermediate assembly having a plurality of cells. The intermediate assembly is inserted into a die cavity, after which the airfoil-shaped structure, having predetermined design characteristics, is superplastically formed by heating the die and selectively pressurizing the plurality of cells using only two forming pressures.