A desired shape can be easily realized, and a decrease in strength can be inhibited. A method for producing a composite material includes: an insertion step of inserting an inner member in which a second reinforcing fiber is impregnated with a resin into a space of an outer member that is formed of a woven first reinforcing fiber extending in an undulating manner, the outer member including an opening that is provided at at least one end portion and the space that communicates with the opening; and a composite material forming step of forming a composite material in which the outer member and the inner member are joined to each other by curing the resin of the inner member to join the outer member and the inner member to each other.

A composite blade formed by laying up composite layers containing reinforcing fiber and resin, the composite blade comprising: a blade root mounted in a blade groove; an airfoil extending from the blade root to a front end side; and a metal patch mounted between the blade groove and the blade root, and bonded to the blade root.

A method and apparatus for forming a composite structure. A stackup comprising a plurality of overbraided thermoplastic members and an overbraided thermoplastic skin is built. The stackup is placed between an inner tooling and an outer tooling. The inner tooling, the stackup, and the outer tooling are held in place together using a load constraint. The inner tooling, the stackup, the outer tooling, and the load constraint form a consolidation setup. The consolidation setup is heated to form the composite structure.

Flowpath assemblies, methods of forming flowpath assemblies, and hypersonic vehicles are provided. For example, a flowpath assembly for a combustor comprises a tube array comprising a plurality of tubes, a joining material disposed between adjacent tubes of the plurality of tubes to join together the adjacent tubes, a flowpath layer, and an outer layer. The plurality of tubes and the joining material are disposed between the flowpath layer and the outer layer. The flowpath layer defines a combustion flowpath. Each of the plurality of tubes, the joining material, the flowpath layer, and the outer layer are formed from a composite material. The combustor comprising the flowpath assembly may be included in a ramjet engine of a hypersonic vehicle. A fabrication method may include laying up composite plies to form a tube array including the plurality of tubes, the joining material, and the flowpath and outer layers.

A fiber-reinforced thermoplastic laminate is disclosed that comprises continuous reinforcing fiber. The laminate is custom designed and fabricated to be molded into a specific article of manufacture. The laminate comprises a plurality of thermoplastic patches that are disjoint and some of which partially overlap.

Composite structures and methods of forming composite structures are provided. A composite structure as disclosed herein incorporates one or more composite structure components, such as composite panels and composite inserts. A composite panel is formed from one or more sheets of fiber reinforced thermoplastic material. Composite inserts can include one or more composite blocks or braided sleeves. A composite block can be formed as a stacked or molded structure from trimmings or waste produced during the formation of the composite structures. A braided sleeve can include a seamless, woven sleeve formed of reinforcing fibers and thermoplastic threads. In a completed composite structure, composite inserts are at least partially disposed within a volume defined by surfaces of composite panels. The various composite structures and inserts can be given a final shape and can be fused to one another in a molding and fusing step.

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

Systems and methods are provided for fabricating a hybrid composite part. A method includes braiding a first set of fibers to form a weave having a closed cross-sectional shape, braiding a second set of fibers into the weave that are chemically distinct from the first set of fibers, impregnating the weave with a resin, and hardening the resin within the weave to form a hybrid composite part.

The purpose of the present invention is to obtain a fiber-reinforced composite material having excellent appearance or mechanical characteristics, whereby a three-dimensional shape is molded with high productivity while appearance defects such as fiber meandering or wrinkling are suppressed. In this method for manufacturing a fiber-reinforced composite material, when a stack in which a plurality of sheet-shaped prepregs (X) in which a plurality of continuously arranged reinforcing fibers are impregnated with a matrix resin composition are layered in different fiber directions is molded into a three-dimensional shape by a molding die (100) provided with a lower die (110) and an upper die (112), a stretchable sheet (10) or a resin film (Y) used in the stack (12) is utilized. In this method for manufacturing a fiber-reinforced composite material, the stack may be pre-molded to obtain a preform, and the preform may be furthermore compression-molded to obtain a fiber-reinforced composite material.

The invention concerns a method for manufacturing a turbomachine flow straightener made from composite material having a blade extended by at least one attachment end, comprising the operations of: forming a fibrous blank from a three-dimensional fabric comprising warp threads oriented in a direction corresponding to the longitudinal direction of the blade to be manufactured; dividing at least one end of the fibrous blank by separating in order to constitute at least two sets of integrated layers; shifting at least one set of integrated layers in a planar configuration such that the warp threads are inclined in this set of integrated layers relative to the orientation of the warp threads in the fibrous blank portion of the blade.