Removable Smart Tooling for High Temperature Composite Fabrication

This research will provide the initial foundation for the usage of removable/washout tooling suitable for use in the fabrication of thermoplastic composite structures. Specifically, the subject for this research is targeted for use with an in-situ consolidated thermoplastic fabrication process, such as the ES3 Scalable Composite Robotic Additive Manufacturing (SCRAM) system. ES3 recently completed preliminary evaluation of a removable tooling material co-developed previous to this proposal submission. Understanding core tooling material strengths and properties will allow for efficient manufacturing of tools for a wide variety of DoN composite structures. Critical removable tooling material properties such as coefficient of thermal expansion, heat deflection temperature, thermal & impact shock will be determined and reported. Tensile, bending & compressive properties will also be determined.  An option exists within this proposal for inspection of dimensional changes to a three-dimensional composite structure. A dimensional inspection will be performed on the final tool, composite after in-situ consolidation-but still on tool, and after washout process. Any dimensional change will be quantified and efforts to design out these dimensional drifts can be accomplished by building off this initial data.