A method of forming a composite component comprising: forming a mandrel by additive manufacturing, the mandrel defining a shape for the component; providing a composite material around the mandrel to form a body of the component; curing the component body to produce the component, the mandrel forming a part of the component.

A technique for manufacturing a millable bridge plug for plugging of a wellbore during, for example, a fracturing operation. A bridge plug is constructed with an obstructed internal passage. The obstructed internal passage is formed by winding a composite material about a wrapping mandrel having at least one cylindrical part and a solid part coupled thereto. The cylindrical part is removed after a curing process leaving a mandrel with a plugged internal passageway upon which a seal member combined with a plurality of slips for engaging a surrounding wall, e.g. a surrounding wellbore wall, may be coupled.

A system and method for forming a strut. A strut comprises a laminated composite tube having a substantially hollow interior and a pair of longitudinal stiffeners attached to opposite sides of the laminated composite tube.

A method for creating tubular inserts is useful for creating custom fitted inserts that correspond to the anatomy of a patient and solve the problem of pressure points, wear of the implant, damage to surrounding tissue, and denting. Surface measurements of the affected portion of a patient's internal cavity are obtained. Those measurements are used to design a core. The core is 3D printed with a soluble material. The core is wrapped with a thin filament or film such that the contours from the core develop on the outer surface of the covering. The covering is hardened and the core is dissolved away, leaving a custom-made implant device that can be deposited in the patient's cavity.

A method for producing a high-pressure tank that can, when forming a reinforcement layer following a previous reinforcement layer using fiber bundles, ensure the strength of the tank by reducing disturbance of the orientation of the fiber bundles. The method is adapted to form each reinforcement layer by winding fiber bundles while holding a preset tension for each layer, and includes a winding start step of stopping rotation of the tank liner upon completion of formation of at least one of the reinforcement layers, and, at the start of forming a following reinforcement layer, winding the fiber bundles at a tension smaller than a preset tension for the following reinforcement layer while alternately repeating rotation of the tank liner in the forward direction and the reverse direction, thereby forming a winding start portion of the following reinforcement layer; and a main winding step of winding the fiber bundles at the preset tension after the winding start step, so as to complete the formation of the following reinforcement layer.

A method of manufacturing a wrapped object, having a first segment and a second segment connected to each other by a curved transition segment having a common tangent with the first segment and a common tangent with the second segment, respectively. The method includes providing a mandrel with a surface structure to define at least part of the shape of the first segment, of the shape of the second segment and of the shape of the transition segment in between, and wrapping, one or more elongate elements over the mandrel and bonding the elongate element(s) to itself and/or each other so as to provide the first segment, the second segment and the transition segment as a continuous structure. The mandrel is provided with a fortification to support the element(s) forming the transition segment against inward-directed forces while wrapping and/or bonding the element(s) to form the transition segment.

A method is provided for producing a pressure vessel from a metal liner, which is reinforced at an outer lateral surface thereof by fiber composite material having a resin matrix. In at least one production step, the resin matrix of the fiber composite material is subjected to an ultrasound treatment.

In the manufacture of composite product, raw composite is layered on a shape or form and cured at a higher temperature. With some shapes, it is difficult or impossible to apply sufficient pressure to force and consolidate the composite material to adequately conform to the desired final shape during the curing process. The expandable tacky tape of this invention is comprised of a viscous medium incorporating thermally expandable material. Applied over the raw composite, the expandable tacky tape effectively forces the composite to conform to the desired shape during curing.

A high-pressure tank fabrication method includes a pre-form fabrication step and a molding step. In the pre-form fabrication step a pre-form is fabricated by winding dry fiber bundles with different thicknesses (first fiber bundles and second fiber bundles) onto a liner in a state in which the dry fiber bundles with different thicknesses are made to be adjacent to one another. In the molding step, molding includes disposing the pre-form fabricated in the pre-form fabrication step in a mold and injecting resin.

A manufacturing method of a tank comprises winding a fiber on a liner by hoop winding. The winding comprises: forming an (N+1)-th layer such that a position closer to a center of the liner by a first predetermined distance along an axis line direction of the liner from an end in the axis line direction of an N-th layer is set to position of an end in the axis line direction of the (N+1)-th layer with respect to a direction perpendicular to the axis line direction; and winding the fiber on the N-th layer to provide one winding turn of the fiber, such that a pressing force of pressing the N-th layer in the axis line direction by the fiber is equal to or smaller than a total frictional force in an area in the N-th layer on an edge side in the axis line direction of a fiber winding position.