Systems and methods are provided for fabricating a wing panel. Methods include aligning a strongback over a wing panel, vacuum attaching a wing panel surface and pogos extending beneath the strongback, and adjusting the length of pogos to enforce a contour to the wing panel. Systems include a strongback to extend over a wing panel, adjustable-length pogos extending beneath the strongback, and vacuum couplers to attach to a wing panel surface. Other systems include a track, work stations along the track, a strongback to extend over the wing panel and move along the track, adjustable-length pogos extending beneath the strongback, and vacuum couplers to attach to a wing panel surface. Apparatus includes a shuttle having adapters that mate the shuttle with a track, adjustable-length carriers with vacuum couplers to couple with a wing panel surface, and indexing units that interact with indexing features in a manufacturing excess of the wing panel.

A manufacturing tool for forming composite structures includes at least one interchangeable mold template having a plurality of incorporated part shapes, and a backbone that connects to and supports the at least one interchangeable mold template during a process of laying up prepreg composite material to form a plurality of three-dimensional structures corresponding to the plurality of incorporated part shapes. A method for simultaneous manufacture of a plurality of composite structures includes providing an interchangeable mold template having a plurality of three-dimensional part shapes, fastening the interchangeable mold template to a backbone structure, laying up prepreg material over the interchangeable mold template to form a material layer, repeating laying up prepreg material to form a plurality of material layers each having a predetermined fiber orientation, and curing the plurality of material layers on the interchangeable mold template to form a plurality of structures corresponding to the three-dimensional part shapes.

The invention relates to a method for producing a test body (30) for mechanically destructively testing a materially bonded joining connection, wherein the method comprises the following steps: providing an areal fiber composite substrate formed from a fiber composite material which has a fiber material and matrix material in which the fiber material is embedded, applying at least one test fabric and an adhesive to a substrate surface of the areal fiber composite substrate, and curing the adhesive, and therefore a materially bonded joining connection is produced between the test fabric and the substrate surface by way of the cured adhesive,
wherein a Dutch-weave fabric and/or a square-mesh fabric is provided as the test fabric.

A device for producing a pultruded article is provided with: a mold in which an intermediate molded article comprising reinforcing fibers impregnated with a thermosetting resin is heated and hardened; and a pultrusion device that causes a pultruded article generated by heating and hardening the intermediate molded article in the mold to be pultruded from the mold. The mold comprises a pressing member that is elastically deformable and that presses the intermediate molded article.

A method of manufacturing a cured composite structure includes inserting a plurality of radius filler segments into a radius cavity extending along a length of an uncured composite base member to form an uncured structural assembly. The plurality of radius filler segments are placed in end-to-end arrangement within the radius cavity and each having opposing segment ends and being formed of a thermoplastic material. The method additionally includes heating the structural assembly at least to a base member cure temperature that causes the segment ends of end-to-end pairs of the plurality of radius filler segments to fuse together and form a continuous radius filler element that extends along the length of the composite base member. The method also includes allowing the structural assembly to cure to form a cured composite structure.

A tool is configured to form a composite charge into a stringer having a net shape with at least one out-of-place feature. The out-of-plane feature is formed by a shim removably attached to the tool. A family of the shims may be used to form a range of out-of-plane features having varying characteristics.

Cap wrinkling in a contoured composite hat stringer is reduced by constraining the cap as the hat stringer is being formed from a flat composite charge. The cap is constrained by an inflatable bladder placed in a tool set used to form the composite charge.

A tool for making contoured composite hat stringers allows control of stringer wrinkling. The tool includes a set of first openings that allow the tool to flex during contouring of the stringer, and a set of second openings into which portions of the composite charge may strain during the contouring.

A method for manufacturing a part made from composite material includes the steps of: applying, to a tool, layers of prepreg composite material for constituting a preform; installing a cover on the preform and sealingly connecting this cover to the tool with sealant; applying a vacuum to the enclosure delimited by the cover and the tool containing the preform; and heating the assembly to a given temperature for a predetermined time period in order to polymerise the layers of prepreg composite material. Also, a step of applying at least one silicone patch to geometrically complex zones of the tool and/or the preform may be performed before installing the cover. The cover may include at least one polyimide and/or at least one compound from the phthalonitrile family.

A curing mold for manufacturing a turbomachine component is made of composite material from a preform, including: a first and a second body defining an air gap receiving the preform; at least one primary channel arranged in the first and/or the second body; an injection member of a pressurized fluid in the primary channels; at least one secondary channel, in which a piston slides, which delimits, on the one hand, a first chamber in communication with the or a primary channel and, on the other hand, a second chamber in communication with the air gap, and which is designed to compress thermosetting resin which has entered the second chamber from the preform in the air gap, so as to put the preform under hydrostatic pressure.