DEVELOPMENTS IN OUT OF AUTOCLAVE COMPOSITES FOR AEROSPACE STRUCTURES AND TOOLING

摘要

Out of Autoclave processable composite materials have now reached a sufficient level ofrnperformance maturity for their deployment on aerospace production structures. The initialrnemphasis has been on the development of epoxy based resins and several systems are now eitherrnin production or in development, resulting in a range of systems with different characteristics,rnmirroring those which have been developed for autoclave processing. A recent addition to thisrnfamily is the MTM47 resin system which has been optimized for notched performance and outrnlife. Also in development are out of autoclave capable prepreg resins based on bismaleimidernchemistry. These systems are of interest for the manufacture of durable composite tooling as wellrnas flight structures. The characteristics of these various systems are reviewed along with thernadvances in the understanding of the associated manufacturing processes.