A preform for a turbine engine blade, comprising a main fiber preform obtained by three-dimensional weaving and comprising: a first longitudinal segment, suitable for forming a blade root; a second longitudinal segment, extending upwards from the first longitudinal segment and suitable for forming an airfoil portion; and a first transverse segment, extending transversely from the junction between the first and second longitudinal segments to a substantially linear distal edge and suitable for forming a first platform; the preform further including at least one attachment tab provided under the first transverse segment at its distal edge, suitable for forming an attachment portion of the platform.

A gas turbine casing made of composite material from fiber reinforcement densified by a matrix. The casing includes at least one stiffener portion extending at a radius greater than the radius of upstream and downstream portions of the casing that are adjacent to the stiffener portion so as to form an annular recess in the inside surface of the casing.

An additive manufacturing system and an input material that overcomes that need to heat and extrude solidifying materials to create a three-dimensional structure. The system arranges subunits of the input material into repeating, interlinked subunits that can be arranged to manufacture a three-dimensional structure that is flexible but also has sufficient structural integrity to retain a desired shape during the additive manufacturing process or post-manufacturing usage. During the additive manufacturing process, the flexible input material can be manipulated and reformed to match the shape and structure of a target three-dimensional structure, upon which the manufactured three-dimensional structure is based. As elongated units of the input material are received by the additive manufacturing machine, the machine assembles the input material into the interlinked, repeating subunits, thereby removing the need to heat and extrude an input material to create a structure.

A honeycomb sandwich structure in which moisture absorption deformation can be sufficiently suppressed and a method for manufacturing the same are provided. The honeycomb sandwich structure includes: a honeycomb core having a recess in a mesh of a carbon fiber fabric; a pair of face plates; a resin layer which fills a part of the recesses; and a water-impermeable film which covers an exposed area including surfaces of the resin layer and the honeycomb core, wherein the recess includes an unfilled part, the unfilled part is a part of the recess that is closer to the opening of the recess, and the unfilled part is not filled with the resin layer.

An incremental forming machine and a process are disclosed that comprise selecting a blank and selecting a stylus that has a tip at one end. The stylus may be heated to a desired temperature before contacting the blank with the stylus to change a characteristic of the blank or part. The stylus apparatus may include a tip on an end of a shaft and a resistance heating element disposed inside the tip. Alternatively, the stylus apparatus may include an induction heating coil disposed around the tip. The tip of the stylus may have a rotatable ball that engages the blank or part.

A method for manufacturing a lightweight cowl crossbar includes: producing an inner pipe, laminating a plurality of composite material layers wound around the inner pipe, and extruding an outer pipe on the winding layer, in which the plurality of composite material layers adjacent to each other are wound in different directions.

A system for constructing a composite structure includes a braiding machine, a winding tool and a forming machine. The composite structure is constructed of a wound tubular braiding. The wound tubular braiding is constructed of a biaxial or triaxial tubular braid of unidirectional tape.

A method for manufacturing a composite-material casing for a gas turbine, includes producing by three-dimensional weaving a fiber texture in the form of a strip, winding of the fiber texture around several superimposed turns on a mandrel with a profile corresponding to that of the casing to be manufactured in order to obtain a fiber preform of a shape corresponding to that of the casing to be manufactured, and densifying the fiber preform by a matrix. During the winding of the last turn of the fiber texture on the mandrel, at least one stiffening element is interposed between the before-last turn and the last turn of the fiber texture. The stiffening element projects over the outer surface of the before-last turn of the fiber texture. The stiffening element has an axial section of omega-type shape.

A method for producing a shell for luggage, comprising: a) producing a preform comprising a structure and including a reinforcement, the structure, which comprises a main zone, two longitudinal zones and two transverse zones, having loops successively forming rows of loops, the rows of loops being connected to each other, and b) placing the preform on a punch, c) impregnating the reinforcement of the preform with a matrix material in order to produce a shell comprising a body, the body being made of a composite material and comprising the matrix and the reinforcement, and the body having a main wall, two longitudinal walls and two transverse walls.

A method of forming a composite structure is presented. A charge is placed on a charge support surface of a charge forming table in a planar orientation, the charge support surface formed by a plurality of surfaces of a plurality of charge forming fingers. A number of charge forming fingers of the plurality of charge forming fingers is actuated to form a curvature into the charge. The charge having the curvature is removed from the charge forming table. The charge having the curvature is placed onto a tool having a matching surface curvature.