Field-deployable, Reformable Tooling System for Repair, Replacement or Prototyping of Composite Structures

The use of reformable, reusable tooling can greatly reduce the time, cost and skills required for conventional tooling production, and no waste products are generated since the tooling materials themselves can be rapidly cycled from a hard tooling-capable state to a liquid-like state and back to the tool-capable state. We are proposing to create a new, lightweight, rapid tooling system for prototyping, field repair and depot-level manufacture / re-manufacture of composite components and structures. The proposed fieldable system will be based on a new class of low density state-change materials and on the development of a robust lightweight system that operates a new type of single-faced reformable "toolbed." The new materials, toolbed design and activating system will be mounted in a field-transportable tooling package proposed for development through this program. In the program's Phase III stage and beyond, the system will be further developed into a fieldable "manufacturing cell" for composites fabrication through the incorporation of features for vacuum debulking and vacuum bagged, temperature-regulated cure of parts.