Aircraft Battle Damage Reapir (ABDR) with Ultraviolet Cure Resin Systems

Rapid on-aircraft repair techniques for fiberglass composite components are essential to the support of the Air Expeditionary Force concept. Field level damage repair of aircraft is critical to maintaining full force projection during combat. Currentfield level repair techniques use thermally accelerated adhesive bonding to restore the original design strength of the composite laminate. Unfortunately, airframe structural members act as heat sinks, and make it difficult to obtain a uniform curetemperature profiles. Current resin repair systems require low temperature storage, increasing storage cost and support complexity.Texas Research Institute Austin, Inc. (TRI/Austin) proposes the development of a line of commercial ultraviolet curable glass composites optimized and designed specifically for quick field repair of damaged aircraft. These high Tg TRI/Austin UV cureresins and glass prepreg patches will offer a field ?friendly, cost effective solution to the current repair problem. Cure times can be significantly reduced, increasing aircraft availability and reducing repair cost. The TRI/Austin aircraft field repairmaterials are easily applied, include a resin with a moderate viscosity, have a high glass transition temperature after cure, require no mixing, and cure in place without the addition of heat.