ECONOMICAL PROCESSING OF FIBER-REINFORCED COMPONENTS WITH THERMAL EXPANSION MOLDING

摘要

The concept of economical fabrication of fiber-reinforced structural components is illustrated with an example of a typical control surface (aileron). The concept provides for fabricating struts, ribs, and a cover plate as an integral structure in a hardening device and then joining the closure cover plate mechanically. Thus in contrast to a metallic piece-by-piece construction technique a saving of about 65% in the number of joints is realized.nFabrication of the integral structure is achieved by so-called "Thermal Expansion Molding, TEM" technique. The hardening pressure is produced by silicone rubber cores which expand under the influence of temperature. Final fabrication is done in a negative mold in an air-circulating oven. The test results are presented for several rubber materials as well as for various structural pieces, satellite structures, spoilers A 300 B.