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DIGITAL LIBRARY: CAMX 2019 | ANAHEIM, CA | SEPTEMBER 23-26

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Method for Eliminating Radius Wrinkles and Bridging in Composite Laminates

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Title: Method for Eliminating Radius Wrinkles and Bridging in Composite Laminates

Authors: Mark A. Wadsworth, Joseph P. Heil, PhD., and Nicholas Cairns

DOI: 10.33599/nasampe/c.19.0768

Abstract: Some of the most common and difficult to avoid defects that occur in complex composite structures are ply wrinkling and bridging. Countless parts throughout the composites industry are scrapped or must be repaired due to these conditions. They are problematic primarily because they can directly reduce laminate mechanical performance but they can also result in porosity, thickness variation and assembly problems. Although wrinkling and bridging are in some ways opposite problems, they are often caused by the same phenomenon; namely that the laminate thickness reduction resulting from consolidation during cure causes an increase or decrease in length of coverage for a given ply. The cause is a simple geometry change but a universal solution has been intractable. A female tool radius covered with a laminate having diminishing thickness will result in a bridge of the outermost ply unless more material is fed into the radius. A male tool radius, likewise, will have wrinkles form in the outermost plies unless material can be pulled away from the diminishing radius that occurs on the outside. Spirit AeroSystems, Inc. has patented a simple method of eliminating wrinkles that directly counters these geometric effects enabling thicker laminates to be formed to tighter radii without creating these defects and thickness variations associated with these conditions. (US10,059,065B2; Method For Eliminating Radius Wrinkles In Composite Laminates).

References: 1. Wadsworth, Mark Anthony, Spirit Aerosystems, Wichita, KS. US Patent for “Method for Eliminating Radius Wrinkles in Composite Laminates”, Patent and Trademark Office No. US10,059,065B2, filed May 9, 2016

Conference: CAMX 2019

Publication Date: 2019/09/23

SKU: TP19-0768

Pages: 12

Price: $24.00

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