No-Oven, No-Autoclave, Composite Processing

Large, single-piece composite structures for NASA launch vehicles are currently very expensive or impossible to fabricate partly because of the capital (ovens, autoclaves, and tooling) needed to cure the part and maintain tolerances at cure conditions. CRG proposes the use of recently developed, no-oven, no-autoclave composite processing technology to fabricate very large, high-performance, single-piece composite structures and tooling for NASA launch vehicles and other aerospace structures. This will reduce capital (plant, equipment, and tooling), operating, and labor-based manufacturing costs. This technology enables rapid manufacturing of large, single-piece structures with no dependence on size-limiting infrastructure and offers the potential for on-site manufacturing. CRG believes this technology to be equally beneficial for quick throughput in smaller sized, high-volume production; but the proposed focus will be large, low-volume production. This technology proposes to surpass current efforts on out-of-autoclave composite processing technology in terms of both acquisition and operations cost to the end user. This will be accomplished through lower production costs and lightweight, unitized structures that require less maintenance. This three-phase program proposes to advance this technology from a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 4 and a Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL) of 3 to a TRL of 9 and a MRL of 9.