Composite materials with improved electrical conductivity and methods of manufacture thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10096396-B2
Application number	US-201414468227-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 25, 2014
Priority date	Aug 25, 2014
Publication date	Oct 9, 2018
Grant date	Oct 9, 2018

Abstract

A method of manufacturing a composite material may include providing one or more layers of reinforcement material penetrated with viscous matrix material that is doped with electrically conductive particles. The method may further include applying a magnetic field to arrange the particles into one or more electrically conductive pathways, and curing the matrix material to secure the pathways in position relative to the reinforcement material.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of manufacturing a composite material, the method comprising:
providing a configuration including a plurality of separate distinguishable layers of reinforcement material, each layer comprising a plurality of elongate fibers oriented in parallel, and viscous matrix material penetrating the plurality of layers of reinforcement material, the matrix material being doped with electrically conductive particles, the plurality of layers of reinforcement material being stacked on top of one another in a z-direction;
applying a magnetic field to the configuration to arrange the particles with respect to the z-direction to form one or more electrically conductive pathways extending generally in the z-direction through the plurality of separate distinguishable layers of reinforcement material; and
curing the matrix material to secure the one or more electrically conductive pathways in position relative to the matrix material and the plurality of layers of reinforcement material.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particles are made of a paramagnetic material, the applying step electrically interconnecting a first subset of the particles into a first pathway of the one or more electrically conductive pathways, the first pathway extending between two or more of the plurality of elongate fibers and through at least a majority of an overall thickness of the plurality of layers of the reinforcement material in the z-direction.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the matrix material is a resin, and the applying step involves electrically interconnecting a second subset of the particles into a second pathway of the one or more electrically conductive pathways, the second pathway being disposed in the resin, extending through the entire overall thickness, and being displaced from the first pathway in a direction orthogonal to the z-direction.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the applying step is carried out until the resin is cured to a predetermined cure state in the curing step.

5. A method of manufacturing a composite material, the method comprising:
providing one or more layers of reinforcement material penetrated with viscous matrix material that is doped with electrically conductive particles, with each of the one or more layers of reinforcement material including a majority of fibers oriented parallel to one another;
applying a magnetic field to arrange the particles into one or more electrically conductive pathways; and
curing the matrix material to a cured state to secure the one or more electrically conductive pathways in position relative to the one or more layers of reinforcement material.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising removing the magnetic field after curing the matrix material to the cured state.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein applying the magnetic field includes generating the magnetic field by at least a pair of solenoids disposed opposite one another relative to the one or more layers of reinforcement material.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the one or more layers includes at least two layers of fibrous reinforcement material stacked in a z-direction, and the applying step involves generating the magnetic field such that field lines of the magnetic field are generally parallel to the z-direction and extend through the at least two layers of fibrous reinforcement material.

9. The method of claim 5 , wherein a majority of the particles are made of a paramagnetic material, and the applying step causes a plurality of the particles to chain together to form at least one of the electrically conductive pathways.

10. The method of claim 5 , wherein the matrix material is made of a dielectric material, and the applying step arranges a plurality of the particles into at least one electrically conductive pathway characterized by the plurality of the particles being electrically interconnected.

11. The method of claim 5 , wherein the curing step involves applying thermal energy to the matrix material.

12. The method of claim 5 , wherein the applying step and the curing step are at least partially performed concurrently.

13. The method of claim 5 , wherein the applying step involves applying the magnetic field until the matrix material reaches a predetermined viscosity.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein
the plurality of layers of reinforcement material each have a thickness in the z-direction
and curing the matrix material includes securing the electrically conductive particles disposed in the matrix material into a non-randomly arranged position to provide enhanced conductivity in the z-direction.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein a substantial percentage of the secured particles form one or more electrically conductive chains extending generally in the z-direction, each chain including at least two or more of the particles in electrical contact with one another.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the substantial percentage is more than 50%.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the particles are made of a paramagnetic material, and at least one of the chains extends through a gap between adjacent fibers included in one of the layers.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein a majority of the particles each have a length that is less than a width of the gap.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein each particle has a respective aspect ratio greater than 1, with the aspect ratio being defined as the length of the respective particle divided by another dimension of the respective particle orthogonal to the length of the respective particle.

20. The method of claim 14 , wherein the plurality of layers includes stacked layers of carbon fibers.

Assignees

• Boeing Co

Inventors

• Humfeld Keith Daniel

Classifications

• B64D45/02

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• B32B5/024

  Woven fabric · CPC title

• B32B2605/00

  Vehicles · CPC title

• B29C70/14

  oriented · CPC title

• B32B3/12

  characterised by a layer of regularly- arranged cells, e.g. a honeycomb structure · CPC title