A method for manufacturing a reinforcing fiber base material includes a placement step of placing a sheet-shaped reinforcing fiber material piece, in which reinforcing fibers are arranged so as to extend in one direction and bound together with a thermoplastic resin, on a table so that the orientation direction of the reinforcing fibers is at an angle with respect to a longitudinal direction of the reinforcing fiber base material, and a welding step in which, in a state in which a previously placed reinforcing fiber material piece and the reinforcing fiber material piece placed subsequent thereto are abutted against each other in the longitudinal direction, adjoining edges of the two reinforcing fiber material pieces are welded together to form a continuous sheet shape.

The present invention relates especially to an intermediate material comprising, or even constituted exclusively by, an array of individualised ribbons, each ribbon being composed by a tape of unidirectional reinforcing fibres associated, by adhesion, on each of its faces with a veil of thermoplastic fibres, characterised in that the ribbons are disposed in successive layers, in such a way that the ribbons of two successive layers are superposed with or without crossing but without interlacement, the bond between a ribbon and the ribbon or ribbons with which it is superposed being ensured by adhesion, and in that in each layer the ribbons are disposed substantially parallel to each other over at least the major part of their length, while being independent and spaced from each other and in that the ribbons of at least two layers extend in two different directions.

A composite article including composite component mounted on a spar including a shank extending heightwise from below component base up into composite component. Tab at an upper end of shank substantially or fully embedded in the composite component and at least one ply surface pattern of the composite component contacting and generally conforming to at least one spar surface pattern on the tab. Spar surface pattern may include spaced apart spar surface protrusions with spar surface spaces therebetween and spar surface protrusions extending outwardly from spar and disposed between tows in ply surface pattern. Tows may be layed up in spar surface spaces. Spar surface pattern may include continuous or segmented spaced spar surface protrusions and spar surface spaces therebetween with tows in ply surface pattern disposed in spar surface spaces. The composite article may be a composite blade or vane including a composite airfoil.

Additive manufacturing systems and methods used for creating 3D parts from continuous-fiber reinforced composites such as, e.g., carbon-fiber or glass-fiber pre-impregnated tape are provided. The systems and methods lay tape in successive layers and cut each layer according to a 2D slice of a 3D CAD file. During the placement of each piece of tape, a laser welds the tape to other tape, eliminating the need for post-processing of each layer. By utilizing tape instead of large fiber-reinforced sheets, the systems and methods described herein reduce waste compared to known manufacturing techniques.

A laminated composite airfoil assembly includes a first lamina formed of a material including metal fibers, and at least a second lamina formed of a material including at least one of metal fibers intermixed with carbon fibers, only metal fibers, only carbon fibers, a substrate including metal fibers, a substrate including carbon fibers, and combinations thereof.

An apparatus for molding a part includes a plunger cavity, a plunger, and a mold cavity, wherein the plunger is oriented out-of-plane with respect to a major surface of the mold cavity, and first and second vents couples to respective first and second portions of the mold cavity. In a method, resin and fiber are forced into the mold cavity from a plunger cavity, and at least some of the fibers and resin are preferentially flowed to certain region in the mold cavity via the use of vents.

A reinforced armor (200) and a process for reinforcing an armor by composite layering are provided. The reinforced armor (200) includes a core structure having a strike face and a back face, a first composite fiber laminate (220) having a plurality of composite fiber plies, bonded to the strike face of the core structure, and a second composite fiber laminate (225) having a plurality of composite fiber plies, bonded to the back face of the core structure. The process for reinforcing the armor includes creating the first and second composite fiber laminates from a plurality of plies of fibrous material impregnated with a resin matrix, and bonding the first and second composite fiber laminate to both the strike face and the back face. Advantageously, the reinforced armor (200) is capable of providing protection against hazards while having a light weight compared with a rigid armor such as steel or ceramic.

A method may include placing a dry fabric over a tool; pressing a first resin film over the dry fabric while the dry fabric is draped over the tool to create an outer layer of the laminate composite structural component; repeating the placing and pressing process until a desired thickness of the outer layer is achieved; compressing a second resin film and a dry fiber fabric between two rollers to tack the second resin film to the dry fiber fabric to create a resin-fabric sheet comprising a resin film layer and an dry fiber fabric layer; cutting the resin-fabric sheet to a pre-determined shape to create at least one resin-fabric preform; and draping a first resin-fabric preform over at least a portion of the outer layer, wherein one or more edges of the first resin-fabric preform overlap the outer layer to create an internal edge.

In accordance with the present invention an aircraft stringerless fuselage structure is provided comprising an impact compliant outer skin having a plurality of resin impregnated skin fibers forming an outer skin surface, an inner stringerless skin surface, and a skin thickness. A plurality of stiffeners is included, each comprising a plurality of resin impregnated stiffener fibers integrated into the inner stringerless skin structure. The plurality of resin impregnated skin fibers are not aligned with the plurality of resin impregnated stiffener fibers.

A composite hat stringer for stiffening a panel includes a plurality of composite fabric plies arranged to form a cap, a pair of flanges and a pair of webs respectively connecting the cap with the pair of flanges. The cap includes at least one 0° composite tape ply interleafed in the composite fabric plies within the cap.