Innovative Material Design and Manufacturing Development for a Lightweight, Low-Cost, Highly Survivable Drive Shaft

Drive shafts for aerospace platforms are highly loaded, stressed, fatigued, and without question must maintain their operational capabilities. A component of this importance requires a material and design that provides not only a solution to stringent design criteria, but also a high level of confidence to the people who are fielding the platform and ultimately, the end user, service men and women. With properties such as high damage tolerance, operational durability, and extremely high strength and stiffness to weight ratios, these materials are ideal for the high speed and dynamic service conditions that drive shafts operate in. At densities approximately 80% less than steel, 40% less than aluminum, and a Tensile Modulus of 20 Msi, continuous carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites offer the ability to reduce component weight while maintaining the needed strength and stiffness. The proposed manufacturing technique, automated in-situ fiber placement, offers capabilities desirable when manufacturing components that require high degree of accuracy and repeatability. With the high degree of accuracy and repeatability gained by using NC controlled equipment to place the composite tape, combined with its low percentage of labor, the in-situ fiber placement process is an excellent manufacturing approach for highly engineered, precision structures.