Out-of-Oven Aerospace Composites

Large aerospace composite structures currently require autoclaves and ovens to achieve desired performance which are expensive to purchase, costly to operate, and often limit part size and production rate. Ovens and autoclaves rely on convective heating which is inefficient, consumes large amounts of energy, and can be difficult to predict. Alternative cure processes using external heaters or hot bonders rely on conduction through the part thickness which can result in large temperature gradients often leading to degraded performance. Embedded heating systems containing multiple zones are needed to efficiently reduce temperature gradients across a part’s surface and ensure temperature uniformity within composite laminates. Cornerstone Research Group, Inc. (CRG) in partnership with the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI) will improve upon their existing resin and composite manufacturing technology by adding structural, embedded nano-heaters to deliver heat efficiently and uniformly during cure. Tailorable heating elements made from N12 Technologies NanoStitch products will be integrated into composite preforms add downstream value by improving interlaminar strength and enabling tiered multifunctionality. The proposed technology can be transitioned through CRG subsidiary NONA Composites (meaning no-oven, no-autoclave) which is built around the concept of fast, flexible composite manufacturing that isn’t tied to infrastructure or expensive tooling.