Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Methods – Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
Patent
1990-01-18
1992-06-30
Ball, Michael W.
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Methods
Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
156382, 219528, 219539, 219549, 428118, B29C 6530, B32B 3106, H05B 334
Patent
active
051260000
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to method and apparatus of molding laminated plates, and more particularly to method and apparatus of molding honeycomb-sandwich construction having composite materials as its skin layers and a honeycomb material as its core.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Recently, laminated boards have been widely used to build sailing boats, racing cars, airplanes and other vehicles. Particularly, the laminated boards of honeycomb-sandwich construction having a honeycomb material as its core and composite materials as its skin layers are advantageously used because of its light weight and strength.
The molding laminated plate described above is conventionally molded as follows. That is, a honeycomb core is laid on between two composite material sheets to form a honeycomb-sandwich construction, and then the formed honeycomb-sandwich construction is put in an autoclave to be cured by heating under pressure.
This autoclave molding, however, requires a large autoclave whose size is large enough to permit relatively large body parts to be put in the autoclave when building extremely large molding laminated plates such as sailing boats or airplanes. In such a large autoclave it is difficult to make full use of thermal energy, and accordingly the running cost will disadvantageously increase. Still disadvantageously, it is difficult to heat the laminate evenly, and therefore there is a fear of imperfect adhesion between the honeycomb core and the skin layers.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the foregoing defects as in the prior art described above and provide a method and apparatus of molding laminated plates which method and apparatus of molding laminated plates no matter what a large size they may have, without requiring any autoclave of a large size.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus of molding laminated plates which permit most effective use of heat in almost full response to requirements upon molding the molding laminated plates.
Disclosure of the Invention
A basic feature of the present invention is to divide the molding laminated plates into a plurality of unit areas of divisional sections and then mold these unit areas one after another.
In more detail, the method of molding laminated plates according to the present invention comprises is characterized by preparing a molding surface composed of unit areas of divisional sections each having a heating layer embedded therein, thereby permitting individual heating of each divisional section; putting a reinforced resin sheet on each divisional section, the reinforced resin sheet having substantially the same size and shape as the divisional section; putting on each reinforced resin sheet, a honeycomb plate having substantially the same size and shape as the divisional section; putting an air-tight enclosure on each lamination thus formed; evacuating the air-tight enclosure; and heating the lamination in the vacuum enclosure with the aid of heating layer until the resin material of the reinforced resin sheet has been melted to flow in each cell of the honeycomb structure, thus forming fillets at partition walls of each cell of the honeycomb structure to provide an integrated honeycomb structure laminate when cooled.
It is desired that the method further comprises the step of putting a sheet of an adhesive material on the reinforced resin sheet. The efficiency with which molding is effected can be increased by molding two or more laminated sections simultaneously.
A mold for use in molding unit areas of divisional sections according to the present invention, has a heating layer embedded in each unit area; and a power control connected to each heating layer for permitting individual heating of each divisional section.
Preferably, each heating layer is divided into at least a center area and a surrounding area each equipped with a thermal sensor, and the power control has a first power supply control section and a second power supply control section allot
REFERENCES:
patent: 3438843 (1969-04-01), Pagel
patent: 4108713 (1978-08-01), Weisz
patent: 4445025 (1984-04-01), Metz
patent: 4788417 (1988-11-01), Graflind
Furuya Motohiro
Takai Osamu
Ball Michael W.
Maki Steven D.
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