Composite Training

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Hi folks,

Just a quick note to pass on.

I will be attending a two week advanced aerospace composites training course in Florida, from 11/2/08 through 11/15/08.

Although being an aircraft mechanic and having dealt with these systems for the last 15 or so years, I felt that with the C/F Mono & alloy composite mono being released soon it would be a plus to get a tune up.

During this time I will have limited access to email and voice messages during the day, so if need be call or email Andy directly.

Thanks,

Scott
 

Randy V

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Has much changed in the last 15 years in composites?
 
Randy,

Got back from Flight Safety, West Palm Beach today.

An amazing course for sure and although very expensive, I would recommend it to anyone interested in really learning the world of aerospace composites.

Lots of the techniques can be passed to plain old plainweave fiberglass cloth too!

I had to ship my shop projects home as I did not want to carry them on the airliner home. I'll post some pics when they arrive. One was a really cool funnel I made out of 3 ply's of pre-preg plain weave aerospace grade C/F, vacuum bagged and cooked off in @250F composite oven.

Its so strong you could probably park a tank on it!

Cheers,
Scott
 
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Randy V

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Would love to see the pics... I've only tried one small project with Vac bagging and it does do a great job, but raises the level of complexity a bit and timing would be crucial on a large complex part...
 
Good point Randy.

With a wet lay up, the last thing you want to do is weigh out and mix the resin, :huh: without having cut out your templates, built your bag, and gathered all your bits (release film, breather, temp probe, peel-ply etc.) necessary for the job.

That is the beauty of pre preg, it does not go off until its baked, so with large parts you have lots of time.

You just need a large oven!

Cheers,
S
 
Some composite repair course project pictures....

1st repair is to a "Mock leading edge" I built up out of 4 ply's of pre preg harness weave Kevlar 49.

A hole was knocked into it with a hammer to create the damage.

Then the damage was cut out with a carbide router bit and step sanded back through the 4 plys of kevlar (aramid) at 1/2 in spacing.

A back ply and then the 4 repair plys were installed using a wet lay up matching the oringinal ply directions to return the piece to original strength.

You can see the separate ply's in the pictures.

The next two repairs are on a 1 inch thick piece of honeycomb core carbon fiber sandwich panel, 3 ply's each side of 3K plain weave pre preg carbon fiber are used in its construction.

The two hole repairs shown were done with;
1) Removing the damaged carbon ply's and honeycomb core on one side and reinstalling new core material, then ply's.

2) The other repair on the side without the blue film adhesive, was done by replacing the core material with syntactic foam.

Both were step sanded back 1/2 inch on the three ply's.

The last two pictures are of some repairs to a flat sheet of 4 ply Kevlar 49 sheet showing drilled hole fills using milled fibers and a corner repair using plain weave "S" glass cloth.

Then of course is the worlds most expensive funnel!

I am continually amazed at the lightness and strength of these materials.

The 6x8 sandwich piece shown only weighs an ounce or two, yet is unbelieveably strong in torsion, compression, and bending.

:thumbsup:

Cheers,
S
 

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Scott, I have a friend in Rhode Island that has built America Cup sailing hulls, etc. with carbon/epoxy pre-peg. He has an oven measuring 120 feet x 30 feet. Don't know the height but it's huge. It has several zones with recirculating fans to control even temperatures across the big oven. He also has a small vacuum chamber which he uses to bag rowing shells and other small parts. Very impressive.
 
he's as old as I am, probably didn't get it there. Bet he knows someone who did though. He is a master boatbuilder. I have been fortunate enough to visit his shop many times and lectured with him during composite boatbuilding seminars in RI.
 
Folks ...

Just weighed the 6x8x1 section of C/F sandwich pictured above, (the piece with the two core repairs in it).

It weighs just 4.2 oz (1/4 lb) or .1191 kg.

:stunned:

:cool:
 
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