This invention relates generally to aircraft skin panels of laminate structure and, more specifically, to methods of forming metal foil plys in composite laminates to impart strength.
Airframe manufacturers have found that skins of graphite, boron, or a blend of ugraphite and boron composite (collectively “polymeric composite”) unidirectional tape can be strengthened by the introduction of titanium foil between laid up plies of polymeric composite unidirectional tape. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,866,272 to Westre et al., incorporated by this reference, is one of several patents teaching the placement of titanium foil between plies of polymeric composite unidirectional tape.
The resulting skin including a titanium foil makes up for a bearing deficiency of non-titanium containing polymeric composite panels, which ordinarily will not bear loads or hold pins well. In addition, composite construction is typically one-third of the density of titanium. Titanium has a relatively low fatigue strength and relatively high crack growth rates. Introducing titanium foil to the polymeric composite skins yields a resulting hybrid that exploits the strengths of polymeric composite and titanium construction. With the introduction of sufficient titanium foil, the resulting skin approaches and can surpass the strength properties of either material alone.
Traditionally, adding plies of polymeric composition has made pad-ups for joints and higher-loaded areas of composite panels. The added plies are laid up in balanced and symmetric manner to form a ramp at the site of the pad-up. These pad-ups add strength at points in the skin without the addition of weight by uniform addition of material across the skin. Recently, the virtues of introduction of titanium foil have been achieved by padding up by adding titanium foil plies.
The selective introduction of titanium foil at places of greater pin bearing loads causes a resulting skin of non-uniform thickness. The transition in thickness from polymeric composite skin alone to reinforced hybrid composite skin is known as a ramp. Fastening parts to pad-ups typically requires complex machining and close tolerances to conform to the ramp. Such considerations mean greater expense in manufacturing.
Additionally, as the thickness of the composite skin increases, the bolt bending stresses increase, consequently decreasing the strength of skin at the bolthole. For this reason, minimizing of the pad-up is advantageous. Thus, there is an unmet need in the art for a method of introducing titanium foil to a polymeric composite lay-up in a manner to reduce the pad-up and ramp length.
The present invention is directed to laminate structures and methods for laying up laminate structures. In one embodiment, a method of laying up a laminate structure includes impregnating a ply of fiber with a first resin; impregnating a ply of metal foil with a second resin; laying up an interrupted lamina of the ply of fiber, the interrupted layer having a terminal edge and being interrupted by the presence at least one cutout defined in the lamina; and laying up the ply of metal foil to substantially fill the cutouts defined in the interrupted lamina.
In accordance with alternate aspects of the invention, the fiber-reinforced polymer includes a fiber selected from the group consisting of aramids, polyolefins, glass, carbon, boron, and ceramics.
In accordance with further aspects of the invention, the metal foil includes a metal selected from the group consisting of alloys of titanium, alloys of aluminum, and alloys of iron.
In accordance with still other aspects of the invention, the polymer may include a thermosetting or a thermoplastic resin, or a hybrid polymer resin with qualities of both resins.
In accordance with additional aspects of the invention, the laminate structure may further include a polymer lamina. The polymer lamina has a third face and a fourth face spaced apart. The polymer lamina includes a ply of fiber-reinforced polymer extending between the third face and the fourth face and extending substantially to the terminal edge.
Embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the following drawings.
The present invention generally relates to laminate structures including a titanium layer, and methods of laying up the same. Many specific details of certain embodiments of the invention are set forth in the following description and in
By way of overview, in one embodiment in accordance with the present invention, a laminate structure includes a metal-polymer composite lamina. The metal-polymer composite lamina has a first face and a second face spaced apart, and extends to a terminal edge. The lamina includes a ply of fiber-reinforced polymer that extends between the first face and the second face and has an interior edge. The interior edge defines at least one cutout. A ply of metal foil extends between the first face and the second face substantially from the interior edge filling the at least one cutout.
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With continued reference to
Because titanium is more dense than fiber-reinforced polymer 15, savings in weight can be achieved by reducing the amount of titanium in the laminate structure by forming the titanium foil 12 within a cutout 14 in a layer 13, rather than allowing the interleaved titanium foil 12a to fully extend toward the profile of the ramp as practiced in the prior art. Interestingly, the profile of a ramp on a laminate 20e, has roughly the same length k as the ramp length j of the laminate 20d. Again, similarly, the profile of a ramp on a laminated 20e, has roughly the same thickness s as the thickness r of the laminate 20d. Thus, shortening the titanium foils 12a may result in a weight savings without significantly changing the pad-up profile.
While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, as noted above, many changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is not limited by the disclosure of the preferred embodiment. Instead, the invention should be determined entirely by reference to the claims that follow.
This patent application is a divisional application of commonly-owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/650,231, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,115,323 entitled “Titanium Foil Ply Replacement In Layup of Composite Skin” filed on Aug. 28, 2003, which application is incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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2397415 | Ghez et al. | Mar 1946 | A |
5160771 | Lambing et al. | Nov 1992 | A |
5344686 | Heubert | Sep 1994 | A |
5578384 | Kingston | Nov 1996 | A |
5693157 | Kingston | Dec 1997 | A |
5866272 | Westre et al. | Feb 1999 | A |
6039832 | McCarville | Mar 2000 | A |
6114050 | Westre et al. | Sep 2000 | A |
6194081 | Kingston | Feb 2001 | B1 |
6320118 | Pridham et al. | Nov 2001 | B1 |
6465110 | Boss et al. | Oct 2002 | B1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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WO 0056541 | Sep 2000 | WO |
WO0056541 | Sep 2000 | WO |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20070000596 A1 | Jan 2007 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 10650231 | Aug 2003 | US |
Child | 11530582 | US |