Investigatioin of Diode Lasers for Removal of Large-Area Appliqu¿

Advanced Ceramics Research Inc. (ACR) has recently developed a low-density water-soluble mandrel material composed of a hollow ceramic-microsphere filler bound together with a high thermal stability thermoplastic binder. ACR and its partners propose to usea variation of this product containing high thermal-conductivity powders for a novel low-cost tooling material for polymer composites. Preliminary experiments have suggested that this is indeed possible. This new material, can be tailored to provide aspecific coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and thermal conductivity (TC), thus providing a tooling material that can be matched to the composite structure being fabricated. In addition, this material will be lightweight, environmentally benign,water-soluble and the cost of the bulk materials is low. Another important feature of the tooling material is that it requires no complex processing and has almost nonexistant shrinkage as the tooling material cures.The tooling technology developed in thisprogram will have a significant impact upon the composites manufacturing community. In particular, this technology will enable more efficient, cost effective methods of fabricating composite bodies used in a whole host of industries.