ADVANCEMENT OF OUT OF AUTCLAVE (OOA) TECHNOLOGY AT TENCATE ADVANCED COMPOSITES, USA

摘要

Out of autoclave (OOA), under vacuum pressure only cured processing of composites has been one of themost important fields of interest in the composite industry in recent years. A great deal of time and resourceshas been invested by many academic institutions, government agencies and the composite industry to furtherthe OOA technology. The advantages and disadvantages of this technology have been chronicled in manytechnical publications and presentations. Tencate Advanced Composites, USA (TCAC) has been very activein promoting and supporting the OOA technology for over 20 years. Over 5,000 airplanes used in thegeneral aviation market were built with TCAC's BT250E-1 epoxy system and numerous UAV's weremanufactured using both BT250E-1 and TC250 epoxy systems with OOA processes. A specially formulatedOOA high temperature cyanate ester system (TC420) with over 500°F temperature resistance is being usedin manufacturing large heat shields in space vehicle applications. As the demand for higher performanceOOA systems continues to grow and the expectation to match or even exceed the properties of autoclavecured systems amplifies, more technical improvements in this area have been investigated and developedwithin TCAC and also through continuous collaboration with the composite industry. This paper is achronicle of a stage by stage advancement of TCAC's new and exciting epoxy OOA materials and processtechnologies. These new prepreg systems deliver much lower void contents after cure, are easier to inspectunder NDI Pulse Echo method and provide better overall hot-wet properties after moisture saturation andbetter impact resistance.