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Issued patent

AERoBOND: Large-scale Composite Manufacturing

An issued NASA patent from the Technology Transfer catalog.

View at technology.nasa.gov
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About this technology

Overview

NASA Langley Research Center has an improved method for making composite structures. Industrial composite manufacturing is primarily accomplished through three methods: co-cure, co-bond, and secondary bond processes. Co-cure produces predictable structures and joint properties but is costly and challenging to implement on large, complex structures. Co-bond and secondary bond processes have greater applicability to complex structures but produce unpredictable material interfaces and properties. NASA’s AERoBOND technology presents a method for manufacturing composites at scale with the reliability of co-cure in a ‘bonded’ assembly process. AERoBOND utilizes novel epoxy and barrier ply layers with optimized chemical and physical properties to enable the bonding of large, complex composites with the advantages of co-cure assembly but without the need for redundant fasteners, thus reducing assembly time and cost.