Carbon/Glass UV Prepreg Emergency Structural Repair of Navy Ship Hull Penetrations

Composites Automation, LLC will develop and demonstrate a cost effective, durable patching and repair system that does not need special storage requirements, has demonstrated that it can be easily applied to a variety of surfaces, can be applied in various environmental conditions, and can strongly reinforce the original form and function of a damaged structure or component. The proposed solution consists of UV curable Glass/carbon fiber prepreg material. This ability to incorporate carbon fiber in a UV curable resin has not been previously possible due the carbon fiber preventing UV penetration. The carbon fiber TuFF material form allows for the UV penetration and has preliminary work demonstrated that complete cure of the glass/UV material under the carbon fiber TuFF ply occurs. This will potentially enable UV curable composite solutions with reduced thickness by providing increased stiffness though the use of the carbon fiber.Ý In addition, a glass/carbon hybridized TuFF material will potentially also enable further optimization. A variant of the proposed solution has been shown to increase fatigue life to 5046?H116 aluminum test specimens and to fully restore large scale damaged balsa cored carbon fiber beams to original strength and stiffness.Ý