Efficient On-Aircraft Composite Repair Process Requiring Minimal Support Equipment (MSC P4277)

Composite material systems have been more widely inserted into Todays Fleet in an effort to enhance the capabilities and meet the operational demands of the 21st century warfighter. In doing so, the Navy has come to rely on these enhanced capabilities and is now looking to improve upon legacy repair and maintenance methods in order maximize the life of these high-performance composite components and structures. In an effort to meet the objective of developing an on-aircraft repair process that minimizes the needs for processing support equipment, Materials Sciences Corporation (MSC) will develop the necessary technical data for long out-life, off-the-shelf (OTS) Out-of-Autoclave (OoA) prepreg systems that may be processed in a wide range of operational environments using vacuum bag consolidation and elevated temperature cure cycles. MSC will leverage their experience in establishing OoA material processing standards for large-scale marine structures as well as their comprehensive composite damage/repair knowledgebase, to evaluate material systems and establish processing procedures that lay the foundation for the development of shelf-stable, high-performance repair kits which may ultimately be distributed and utilized throughout the Fleet.