Rapid Manufacturing of Tooling for On-Aircraft Composite Scarf Repairs

Title:Rapid Tooling for High Temperature Composite Scarf RepairAbstract:This proposed effort seeks to reduce the downtime of aircraft caused by time-intensive composite repair.This will be done by reducing the fabrication time needed to make scarf repair tooling from 16-20 hours down to 4 hours or less.Handheld 3D scanners will be used to create a virtual surface of the scarfed repair site.A mold will be designed using the negative of this image.This mold will be additively manufactured using a pellet-fed, dual head platform from Titan Robotics that can print and machine the mold surface on the same machine.High temperature feedstocks capable of withstanding 450+ deg Fahrenheit will be used for mold construction.The finished mold will be used to generate an autoclaved repair patch that can be bonded on the aircraft repair site.This method is expected to provide a tool with a <0.005 profile tolerance and almost no deformation during cure, resulting in a very accurate repair patch produced in less than 4 hours.This technology will have immediate application in composite repair, as well as tooling for composite part fabrication in both military and civilian application.