Innovative Manufacturing Processes

"Carbon-Carbon (C-C) materials required for aerospace and missile applications are presently limited by cost, excessive production cycle duration, and furnace size limitations. The ability to shorten the iterative carbon densification process by using veryhigh char (carbon yield) resins will reduce or eliminate those current limitations by identifying and testing very high char yield resins for use in C-C production. The ability to utilize very high charring resins in the production of C-C will reduce thecost of the current generation of solid fueled launch vehicles and rocket motors and enable domestic U.S. manufacturing of the next generation of very large booster and launch vehicle motors. It may also improve the performance of tactical missiles byenabling the use of C-C as replacement for other less durable materials."