A method of manufacture of a shaft including positioning a prefabricated wedge member onto a cylindrical mandrel, winding a fibre material onto the mandrel, the fibre material extending over at least a part of the wedge member, allowing a matrix material impregnated into the fibre material to cure, and machining away at least part of the fibre material in the region of the wedge member to expose fibres thereof.

A threaded shaft for a ball screw comprising: a shaft of fibre-reinforced polymer material; and a helical ridge formed on an outer surface of said shaft, said helical ridge being formed from a fibre-reinforced polymer material comprising a plurality of helical fibres wound around the shaft in the same sense and grouped together to form the ridge. The helical ridge formed from grouped helical fibres all wound with the same sense provides excellent axial load carrying capability as the fibres run continuously from end to end of the shaft and can thus transmit load from end to end. This adds much greater strength than a shaft formed from plastics only. The load carrying capability of the fibre wound helical ridge can indeed approach that of existing metal threads while still being much lighter in weight.

A filament winding device includes: a supporting unit that supports a mandrel on which a plurality of fiber bundles impregnated with a resin are wound, the supporting unit movable in the axial direction of the mandrel; and a helical unit having a plurality of fiber bundle guide units arranged radially in the circumferential direction of the mandrel and guide the corresponding plurality of fiber bundles to the mandrel, the helical unit supplying the plurality of fiber bundles to the mandrel through the fiber bundle guide units. Each of the fiber bundle guide units has a pressing roller for pressing a fiber bundle supplied to the mandrel, against the circumferential surface moving in the axial direction. The pressing roller can come into the contact with the circumferential surface of the mandrel and be rotationally driven about a roller axis extending in a roller axis direction perpendicular to the axial direction.

A process for forming a flexible composite driveshaft includes providing a mandrel having a rigid region and a compressible region, applying fiber tape to the mandrel using automated fiber placement with in-situ laser curing in the rigid region and without in-situ laser curing the compressible region, and compressing the fiber tape and compressible material in the compressible region to form diaphragms that extend radially outward to a diameter that is at least twice the size of a diameter of the composite driveshaft in the rigid region.

A shaft component, which in particular can be connected or is connected to the input or output side of a gear box in a gas turbine engine, in particular an aircraft engine, wherein the shaft component has at least two regions comprising fiber reinforced plastic, with fibers in the at least two regions differing in their composition, their geometric properties, their density, their radial position, their axial position and/or in their fiber orientation in the shaft component.

A threaded shaft for a ball screw comprising: a shaft of fibre-reinforced polymer material; and a helical ridge formed on an outer surface of said shaft, said helical ridge being formed from a fibre-reinforced polymer material comprising a plurality of helical fibres wound around the shaft in the same sense and grouped together to form the ridge. The helical ridge formed from grouped helical fibres all wound with the same sense provides excellent axial load carrying capability as the fibres run continuously from end to end of the shaft and can thus transmit load from end to end. This adds much greater strength than a shaft formed from plastics only. The load carrying capability of the fibre wound helical ridge can indeed approach that of existing metal threads while still being much lighter in weight.

A method for manufacturing a tube body made of fiber-reinforced plastic and used in a power transmission shaft is provided and the method includes: a generating step of disposing an uncured fiber-reinforced resin on a cavity surface of a mold and generating a resin body in a cylindrical shape; and a curing step of supplying a fluid inside the resin body and curing the resin of the resin body.

A composite shaft has a fiber orientation that is a combination of fibers perpendicular to each other and a longitudinal axis of the shaft; and a second composite layer disposed at an angle ranging between 25 to 45 degrees+/−3 degrees from the fibers in the first composite layer; a third composite layer disposed at an angle ranging between 7 to 13 degrees+/−3 degrees from the fibers in the second composite layer and each subsequent transition layer(s); a fourth composite layer disposed at an angle ranging between 25 to 45 degrees+/−3 degrees from the fibers in the third composite layer(s); and a fifth composite generally perpendicular +/−3 degrees to each other and the fibers in the fourth composite layer.

A drive shaft has a tubular member extending between axial ends and being hollow. The tubular member is formed of a thermoplastic matrix with embedded fibers. At least one ring member is positioned radially of the tubular member. A method is also disclosed.

A system or a kit of multiple composite driveshaft assemblies for vehicles is provided, with the with the different composite driveshaft assemblies having different performance characteristics. The different performance characteristics of the composite driveshaft assemblies may be achieved by varying, for example, filament material(s), filament winding depth(s), and filament wind angle(s).