Laser-perforated metal honeycomb material and method of manufacturing same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10486389-B2
Application number	US-201615286478-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 5, 2016
Priority date	Oct 5, 2016
Publication date	Nov 26, 2019
Grant date	Nov 26, 2019

Abstract

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, a method of manufacturing perforated metal honeycomb material includes: printing a roll of metal foil with adhesive; laser perforating the roll of metal foil to provide a plurality of holes in the metal foil; sheeting the printed and perforated roll of metal foil into a plurality of stacked sheets; and laminating the sheets of metal foil into a honeycomb before expansion block (HOBE). In another embodiment of the present disclosure, a perforated metal honeycomb structure includes a metal honeycomb structure having a plurality of laser-drilled holes wherein at least some of the plurality of holes are non-uniform in size, shape, and/or spacing between holes.

First claim

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A method of manufacturing perforated metal honeycomb material, the method comprising:
printing a roll of metal foil with lines of adhesive;
laser perforating the roll of metal foil to provide a plurality of holes in the metal foil;
after laser perforating, sheeting the printed and perforated roll of metal foil into a plurality of stacked sheets, wherein the lines of adhesive of each sheet are superposed with the lines of adhesive of a juxtaposed sheet; and
laminating the sheets of metal foil into a honeycomb before expansion block (HOBE).

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising cutting the HOBE block into a plurality of HOBE slices.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising expanding the HOBE slices into expanded honeycomb structures having a plurality of perforations.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the roll of metal foil is printed with adhesive prior to laser perforation.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the roll of metal foil is printed with adhesive after laser perforation.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the plurality of holes are larger than 0.10 mm in diameter.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the plurality of holes are non-uniform in size and/or shape.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein a spacing between at least some of the plurality of holes is non-uniform.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising corrugating the roll of metal foil to produce a corrugated honeycomb structure.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method of manufacturing perforated metal honeycomb material does not include the process step of compression of the metal foil after the perforation process step.

11. A method of manufacturing perforated metal honeycomb material, the method comprising:
printing a roll of metal foil with lines of adhesive;
laser perforating the roll of metal foil to provide a plurality of holes in the metal foil;
after laser perforating, sheeting the printed and perforated roll of metal foil into a plurality of stacked sheets, wherein the lines of adhesive of each sheet are superposed with the lines of adhesive of a juxtaposed sheet;
laminating the sheets of metal foil into a honeycomb before expansion block (HOBE);
cutting the HOBE block into a plurality of HOBE slices; and
expanding the HOBE slices into expanded honeycomb structures having a plurality of perforations.

12. The method of claim 1 , where the holes produced by laser perforating have a volcano height of less than or about 30 μm.

13. The method of claim 1 , where the holes produced by laser perforating have a volcano height of less than or about 20 μm.

14. The method of claim 1 , where the holes produced by laser perforating have a volcano height of less than or about 1.8 μm.

15. The method of claim 1 , where the holes produced by laser perforating have a volcano height of about 1.8 μm to about 30 μm.

16. The method of claim 1 , where the laser perforating comprises using a nano IR laser.

17. The method of claim 1 , where the laser perforating comprises using a nano UV laser.

18. The method of claim 1 , where the laser perforating comprises using a femto Green laser.

Assignees

• Space Exploration Tech Corp

Inventors

• Davin Christopher
• Riley William B

Classifications

• F01N2330/04

  Methods of manufacturing · CPC title

• F01N3/2821

  the support being provided with means to enhance the mixing process inside the converter, e.g. sheets, plates or foils with protrusions or projections to create turbulence · CPC title

• F01N3/2814

  all sheets, plates or foils being corrugated · CPC title

• B32B37/0076

  characterised in that the layers are not bonded on the totality of their surfaces · CPC title

• F01N2330/02

  Metallic plates or honeycombs, e.g. superposed or rolled-up corrugated or otherwise deformed sheet metal · CPC title