Automated High Rate Composite Surface Preparation for Bonding

Bonding of composite components is a critical process for assembly of complex structures specifically within the aviation and space sector. Aircraft, such as Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lighting, have extensive composite structures that are assembled together via bonding. To bond these structures together, operators hand sand the composite part in the bond zone region. This process known as “Sand to Black” removes the outside layer of resin, exposing the outermost fiber layer which allows for strong adhesion to the exposed fibers. Being a manual process there is often variability in sanding depth part to part, which can cause non-uniform bond strengths and introduces variability into performance. The labor costs and cycle time penalties paid today for this process are digestible for current platforms, but as the DOD and commercial customers look for more “affordable mass” vehicles built at significantly higher rates manual, long, and variable processes will have to transition to automated, fast, and highly repeatable process. The Composite Laser Ablative Surface Preparation (CLASP) system is able to offer an automated, scalable, and highly repeatable, composite surface preparation process. The CLASP system works by using ultrashort pulsed lasers to remove the thin outside resin layer down to the fibers exposing them, but not damaging them. CLASP can be attached to a robotic arm allowing for automation of high-volume repetitive parts. This technology solves a part of the scalability problem with composite manufacturing process which ultimately needs to be solved to meet the demand from both DOD and commercial customers who are looking at building high volume platforms that rely on composite structures for increased performance.