Method for manufacturing an aircraft leading edge panel that allows extensive laminar flow to be obtained, and leading edge comprising at least one panel obtained using the said method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11027818-B2
Application number	US-201816108575-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 22, 2018
Priority date	Aug 30, 2017
Publication date	Jun 8, 2021
Grant date	Jun 8, 2021

Abstract

A method for manufacturing an aircraft leading edge panel, includes a step of overmoulding a coating onto a sheet positioned in a cavity of a mould, which cavity is delimited by a shaping surface which exhibits an optimized surface finish. The coating includes, after the overmoulding step, an exterior face which corresponds to the exterior face of the panel that is to be obtained and which exhibits an optimized surface finish conferred by the shaping surface of the mould. A panel may be obtained using this method and a leading edge includes at least one such panel. Because of the optimized surface finish of the exterior surface thereof, the panel contributes to extending the regions of laminar flow.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for manufacturing an aircraft leading edge panel, the method comprising:
placing a sheet in a cavity of a mould, the cavity delimited by a shaping surface configured to shape an exterior face of the panel that is to be obtained, the shaping surface having an optimized surface finish, wherein the optimized surface finish includes a roughness Ra and Rt of the order of 0.2 μm; and
overmoulding a coating onto the sheet by injecting a material into the cavity of the mould, the coating comprising, after the overmoulding step, an exterior face which corresponds to the exterior face of the panel that is to be obtained, the exterior face of the coating having the optimized surface finish conferred by the shaping surface of the mould,
wherein the sheet comprises an internal face, an external face at least partially coated with the coating and at least one through-orifice,
wherein the coating material is injected via at least one feed positioned on the side of the internal face of the sheet and in line with the through-orifice, and
wherein at least two feeds each comprise a nozzle having an end in raised relief with respect to a contact surface of the mould against which surface the internal face of the sheet is pressed, the end of the nozzle having shapes that complement those of the corresponding through-orifice so as to obtain a clearance-free fit between the end of the nozzle and the through-orifice.

2. The method for manufacturing an aircraft leading edge panel according to claim 1 , wherein the mould comprises at least one slide comprising a finger able to move in a bore of the mould between a retracted state in which the finger does not interfere with the sheet and a deployed state in which the finger interferes with the sheet, and
wherein, for each of the at least one slide, the sheet comprises a hole, a diameter of the hole being equal to that of the finger and positioned in the continuation of the bore of the mould when the sheet is correctly positioned in the mould.

3. The method for manufacturing an aircraft leading edge panel according to claim 1 , wherein the sheet comprises a continuation extending beyond a front edge face of the sheet, and a rear zone adjoining a rear edge face of the sheet, and
wherein the mould comprises first and second moving parts able to move between an open position and a closed position, the first and second parts having complementing shapes configured to delimit the cavity in the closed position, the first part comprising a contact surface configured to receive an internal face of the sheet and the second part comprising the shaping surface and clamping flanks positioned one at each end of the shaping surface and configured to clamp the continuation and the rear zone of the sheet against the contact surface of the first part in the closed position.

4. The method for manufacturing an aircraft leading edge panel according to claim 3 , wherein the continuation is positioned in such a way as to leave the front edge face of the sheet at least partially clear.

5. The method for manufacturing an aircraft leading edge panel according to claim 3 , wherein the continuation of the sheet is removed after the overmoulding step.

6. The method for manufacturing an aircraft leading edge panel according to claim 1 , wherein the sheet is shaped in the same way as the panel that is to be obtained, prior to being placed in the mould.

7. An aircraft leading edge panel obtained using the method according to claim 1 .

8. An aircraft leading edge comprising at least one panel according to claim 7 , the at least one panel comprises two panels each comprising front lateral edge faces which come together contiguously at a junction plane positioned along an aerodynamic stagnation line, for each panel the coating at least partially covering the front edge face of the sheet.

9. An aircraft comprising at least one leading edge according to claim 8 .

Assignees

• Airbus Operations Sas
• Airbus Sas

Inventors

• Kierbel Daniel
• Farouz-Fouquet Mathias
• Malard Laurent

Classifications

• B64C3/24

  Moulded or cast structures · CPC title

• B29C70/78 Primary

  Moulding material on one side only of the preformed part · CPC title

• B64C2003/147

  comprising trailing edges of particular shape · CPC title

• B64C21/10

  using other surface properties, e.g. roughness · CPC title

• Y02T50/40

  Weight reduction · CPC title