Composite ISO Shelter, Designed for Automated Production

There is no doubt that composite materials can be used to produce very light weight, high performance shelters, including shelters satisfying all ISO requirements. All three members of this proposal team have been involved over the last 15 years with programs emphasizing different aspects of composite ISO shelter design, fabrication, and testing. The primary factor inhibiting the routine usage of composite shelters by the military has been their high acquisition cost. An approach to composite shelter design that from the outset uses an integrated design/build team approach to assure that shelter configurations are chosen to take maximum advantage of automated composite manufacturing technology is required to reduce cost. During Phase I the proposal team will design composite ISO shelters using three different philosophies - a part-for-part replacement of the aluminum ISO shelter components currently in military service, a minimum weight design with little regard for cost, and a balanced cost/weight design emphasizing component tailoring for automated production technology. Pultrusion, filament winding, RTM, compression molding and braiding will all be evaluated for potential applicability to cost effective fabrication. Large scale part integration made possible by automated manufacturing techniques will play a key role in cost reduction.