Methods of imparting conductivity to materials used in composite article fabrication and materials thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9962907-B2
Application number	US-97186910-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 17, 2010
Priority date	Dec 18, 2009
Publication date	May 8, 2018
Grant date	May 8, 2018

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention are directed to metal- or metal alloy-coated sheet materials (hereinafter, “metal-coated sheet material”) including, but not limited to, fabrics and veils which have a metal content of between one (1) and fifty (50) grams per square meter (gsm). The metal-coated sheet materials may be used as-is or in conjunction with prepregs, adhesives or surfacing films to provide lightning strike protection (LSP) and/or bulk conductivity, among other benefits, to the resultant composite article. In one embodiment, the metal-coated sheet material is impregnated with a resin. According to embodiments of the invention, a metal is applied to one or two sides of the fabric or veil by a physical vapor deposition coating process. The resultant metal-coated fabric or veil may be used as a carrier in surfacing films to impart surface conductivity; may be used as a carrier in adhesives to form conductive adhesive-bonded joints; may be interleaved (one or more metal-coated veils) between layers of prepreg to impart surface and/or bulk conductivity as well as toughness; or may be used to fabricate composite articles.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A laminate structure comprising a plurality of prepreg plies interleaved with a plurality of metal-coated sheet materials such that each metal-coated sheet material is positioned between adjacent prepreg plies,
wherein
each metal-coated sheet material comprises a layer of a metal or metal alloy coated on at least one side of a nonwoven veil, said layer of metal or metal alloy having an areal weight of less than 5 gsm,
the nonwoven veil comprises carbon fibers, and
each prepreg ply comprises reinforcement fibers pre-impregnated with a resin, the reinforcement fibers being selected from the group consisting of carbon fibers, graphite fibers, fiberglass fibers, quartz fibers, para-aramid fibers, and combinations thereof.

2. The laminate structure of claim 1 , wherein the metal or metal alloy is selected from the group consisting of aluminum, copper, silver, nickel, palladium, tin, gold and a combination thereof.

3. The laminate structure of claim 1 , wherein the resin in each prepreg ply comprises a material selected from the group consisting of epoxy, bismaleimide, phenolic, cyanate ester, polyimide, and combinations thereof.

4. The laminate structure of claim 1 , wherein the layer of metal or metal alloy has a thickness between 0.5 μm and 2 μm.

Assignees

• Price Richard Thomas
• Abusafieh Abdel
• Cytec Tech Corp

Inventors

• Price Richard Thomas
• Abusafieh Abdel

Classifications

• B32B2307/212

  Electromagnetic interference shielding · CPC title

• Y10T442/3382

  Including a free metal or alloy constituent · CPC title

• B32B15/14

  next to a fibrous or filamentary layer · CPC title

• B32B15/08 Primary

  of synthetic resin · CPC title

• B64D45/02

  Lightning protectors; Static dischargers · CPC title