LIQUID COMPOSITE MOLDING FOR AERONAUTICAL STRUCTURES

摘要

Liquid Composite Molding (LCM) has gained popularity recently due to environmental concerns associated with open tool manufacturing. One subclass of LCM processes, that is gaining current research interest in aerospace field, is Resin Transfer Molding (RTM).The increasing number of papers and conferences about RTM shows that it is a very interesting technique in the aerospace, automotive and military industry. The reason why RTM is attracting a lot of attention is its potential of reducing manufacturing cost and creating an integrated part with complex geometry and high fiber volume fraction. Nevertheless, industry hesitancy to adopt this class of manufacturing process is due to unfamiliarity with the process, especially from a qualification point of view. This paper describes an application of procedure to improve reliability and predictability of RTM technology in order to decrease development cost and make the risk of quality defects during production as small as possible. Numerical and experimental results are reported. The helicopter transmission gearbox has been identified as a candidate for being redesigned using RTM technology. It gives details of the preferred style and offers templates to ease paper preparation.