The present invention relates to diverse methods for the fabrication of negative coefficient thermal expansion engineered elements, and particularly, wherein such elements provide for fillers possessing negative coefficient of thermal expansion and which are employable as fillers for polymers possessing high coefficients of thermal expansion to result in filled polymers with net low, zero, or negative coefficient of thermal expansion. The invention further relates to novel structures, which are obtained by the inventive methods.
In essence, polymers, which are adapted to be filled with negative coefficient of thermal expansion elements or particles that possess a low, zero or negative coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), are in demand for intended applications in, for instance, the electronics and aeronautics industries.
In particular, the methods of fabricating these negative CTE elements or particles, and that serve as volume increasers for the polymer components may be produced by means of the novel methods so as to provide unique volumetrically expanded structures.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide novel methods for the fabrication of negative coefficient of expansion engineered elements or particles, preferably utilized for fillers in polymer structures.
Another object of the invention resides in the provision of structures incorporating negative coefficient of expansion elements or particles that are fabricated pursuant to the inventive methods.
Reference may now be made to the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Pursuant to the fabrication of a first embodiment of the present invention, there is employed the following method, as represented in
Referring in particular to
These foregoing method steps, as described in connection with
As illustrated in the embodiment of the method as described in
In accordance with modified methods employed in forming structures of the type under consideration, the following approaches are possible:
Another example starting with a single layer, similar to that of
Pursuant to a further modification, the following concept may be used:
Another embodiment is to cause a sheet of material to be adhered to a second sheet of the same material, where the adhesive would be applied in an annular pattern, and wherein the adhesive processes a higher CTE than the sheet material. Laser cutting could then be used to excise the disk shaped device around the outside of the adhesive ring. The processing, including the adhesion step, should be carried out at elevated temperatures so that upon final cooling the shrinkage of the high CTE adhesive would be greater than that of the sheet material and cause a curvature to develop in the sheet and possibly even occurring in buckling. A variant of this approach would be to use a bilayer sheet material with a low CTE layer on the outside to force the development of positive curvature upon cooling (convex from the outside) and to negate the possibility of particle collapse where one sheet would have positive curvature and the other negative (where the two layers would nest as with two spoons).
Another embodiment, as disclosed in
The relative lengths of the A, B, and C sections, as well as the relative thicknesses of the high and low CTE layers and the weld layer, are variable depending on the material properties of the constituent materials used. Such as the elastic modulus, the CTE, etc., as well as the optimized performance for a use as a filler in a particular polymer.
The effect of reversing the layer sequence near the device edges is that upon imposing a delta T, this creates an edge curvature which deviates from the plane faster than the reverse sequence and results in a larger overall volumetric change. It is to be understood that many varieties of such a structure could be easily conceived, each with different advantages and tradeoffs. One such would merge layers 46 with 42 by co-depositing them in a single process step followed by a following step to deposit layer 40.
While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with respect to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing and other changes in forms and details may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention. It is therefore intended that the present invention not be limited to the exact forms and details described and illustrated, but fall within the scope of the appended claims.
This application is a divisional of U.S. Ser. No. 11/967,459, filed Dec. 31, 2007, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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4332999 | Wittke | Jun 1982 | A |
6924171 | Buchwalter et al. | Aug 2005 | B2 |
7215081 | Bewlay et al. | May 2007 | B2 |
20040110322 | Hougham et al. | Jun 2004 | A1 |
Entry |
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United States Official Action issued Jul. 15, 2011 in corresponding U.S. Appl. No. 11/967,459. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20120121906 A1 | May 2012 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 11967459 | Dec 2007 | US |
Child | 13356778 | US |