Title: Hybrid Additively Manufactured Tooling for Large Composite Aerostructures

Authors: Scott R. Huelskamp, Vern Benson, and Maria Pilar Muñoz-Lopez

DOI: 10.33599/nasampe/s.20.0030

Abstract: Additively manufactured (AM) tooling has been shown to reduce cost and time in composite fabrication. However, AM tooling suffers from high, anisotropic thermal expansion that makes molding high accuracy composite parts at high temperatures very difficult. This is especially true for large structures with high aspect ratios and complex surface features. This paper discusses a new approach to overcome this challenge and allows AM tooling to be used in previously infeasible applications. A sandwich tool approach, made with a combination of a polymeric AM core and conventional tooling prepreg facesheets, was used to take advantage of the inherent strengths of each material while offsetting for the weaknesses. This approach was ultimately demonstrated on a multi-piece C-spar tool in support of an Airbus tooling development program. The tool exhibited isotropic thermal expansion that was nearly equivalent to that of invar at 180 degrees Celsius in both the x and y direction. The tooling was shown to be durable and dimensionally accurate through more than ten autoclave cycles.

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Conference: SAMPE 2020 | Virtual Series

Publication Date: 2020/06/01

SKU: TP20-0000000030

Pages: 15

Price: FREE