Method of repairing sandwich structure and repaired sandwich structure

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11148375-B1
Application number	US-201916654840-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Oct 16, 2019
Priority date	Aug 29, 2017
Publication date	Oct 19, 2021
Grant date	Oct 19, 2021

Abstract

A method of repairing a sandwich structure includes: removing a damaged portion of a core and a damaged portion of a first facesheet to form an open volume; filling the open volume with an ultraviolet-curable photomonomer; partially curing the ultraviolet-curable photomonomer to form a plurality of photopolymer waveguides by utilizing ultraviolet light; and arranging a replacement facesheet on the damaged portion of the first facesheet and over the photopolymer waveguides.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of repairing a sandwich structure, the method comprising:
removing a damaged portion of a core and a damaged portion of a first facesheet to form an open volume;
filling the open volume with an ultraviolet-curable photomonomer;
partially curing the ultraviolet-curable photomonomer to form a plurality of photopolymer waveguides by utilizing ultraviolet light; and
arranging a replacement facesheet on the damaged portion of the first facesheet and over the photopolymer waveguides.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sealing the open volume with a sealant to form a sealed repair volume; and
filling the sealed repair volume with the ultraviolet-curable photomonomer.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the sealant comprises a polymer film, a metal foil, and/or a composite ply.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the sealant is sealed to a second facesheet by an ultraviolet-curable resin, a film adhesive, and/or a liquid adhesive.

5. The method of claim 2 , further comprising placing a mask over the ultraviolet-curable photomonomer in the sealed repair volume, the mask comprising a plurality of ultraviolet-transparent apertures.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the partial curing of the ultraviolet-curable photomonomer comprises exposing a plurality of ultraviolet light sources to the ultraviolet-curable photomonomer through the ultraviolet-transparent apertures of the mask to form the plurality of photopolymer waveguides.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising removing the mask after the partial curing of the ultraviolet-curable photomonomer.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising removing uncured ultraviolet-curable photomonomer from the sealed repair volume.

9. The method of claim 7 , further comprising thermally curing the photopolymer waveguides.

10. The method of claim 7 , further comprising curing the photopolymer waveguides by exposing the photopolymer waveguides to non-collimated ultraviolet light.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising adhering the replacement facesheet to the first facesheet by utilizing an adhesive.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the arranging of the replacement facesheet comprises:
stacking a plurality of composite plies on the first facesheet and over the photopolymer waveguides; and
curing the composite plies by utilizing ultraviolet light and/or heat.

Assignees

• Hrl Lab Llc

Inventors

• Hundley Jacob M
• Clough Eric C
• Eckel Zak C
• Page David
• Yang Sophia S

Classifications

• B32B15/043

  of metal (B32B15/01 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B32B2266/06

  Open cell foam · CPC title

• B32B9/047

  made of fibres or filaments · CPC title

• B32B9/041

  of metal · CPC title

• B32B9/005

  comprising one layer of ceramic material, e.g. porcelain, ceramic tile (layered products with at least two ceramic layers composed mainly of ceramic B32B18/00) · CPC title