COMPOSITE MATERIAL STITCHING STRUCTURE REINFORCED WITH Z-DIRECTION FIBER

Abstract

The present invention relates to a fastening structure of a composite material structure, and more particularly, to a composite material stitching structure reinforced with z-direction fiber which improves strength in a lamination direction of a relatively weak composite material structure, for a composite material structure, in which composite materials are laminated and bonded.

Claims

1. A composite material stitching structure reinforced with z-direction fiber, the composite material stitching structure comprising: a composite material laminated body in which a plurality of uncured composite material prepreg or preform is laminated; and uncured flexible composite fiber which penetrates the composite material laminated body in a lamination direction of the composite material laminated body and has a predetermined length, wherein the composite fiber is penetrated so that a distal end of the composite fiber protrudes from the outermost portion of the composite material laminated body to an external side by a predetermined distance, the protruding distal end is bent to be disposed in a plane direction of the composite material laminated body, and the composite fiber is bent and fixed through a heat curing process of the composite material laminated body.

2. The composite material stitching structure reinforced with z-direction fiber of claim 1, wherein the composite fiber is formed of discontinuous monofilaments.

3. The composite material stitching structure reinforced with z-direction fiber of claim 1, wherein bending directions of a distal end at one side of the composite fiber and a distal end at the other side of the composite fiber are arranged in a specific direction on a surface of the composite material laminated body.

4. The composite material stitching structure reinforced with z-direction fiber of claim 1, wherein the composite fiber is formed of a plurality of strands, and a plurality of strands at the distal end of the composite fiber is radially bent.

5. The composite material stitching structure reinforced with z-direction fiber of claim 3, wherein the bending direction of one distal end of the composite fiber is opposite to the bending direction of the other distal end of the composite fiber.

6. The composite material stitching structure reinforced with z-direction fiber of claim 1, wherein the composite fibers penetrates the composite material laminated body in the lamination direction of the composite material, with the plurality of composite fibers are disposed while being spaced apart from one another in a plane direction of the composite material.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0019] FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a stitching structure in the related art.

[0020] FIG. 2 is a picture of stitched fiber in which an angle of fiber bending is 180 or more.

[0021] FIG. 3 is a picture of stitched fiber damaged due to a z-directional load.

[0022] FIG. 4 is a perspective view illustrating a composite material stitching structure according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

[0023] FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 4 taken along line AA.

[0024] FIG. 6 is a top plan view illustrating the composite material stitching structure according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

[0025] FIG. 7 is a top plan view illustrating a composite material stitching structure according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

[0026] FIG. 8 is a process diagram illustrating a method of fabricating a composite material stitching structure of the present invention.

EXPLANATION OF REFERENCE NUMERALS AND SYMBOLS

[0027] 100: Composite material laminated body [0028] 110: Composite material [0029] 111: Flat composite material [0030] 112: T-shaped composite material reinforced panel [0031] 120: composite fiber [0032] 120a: Strand [0033] 121: One-side distal end [0034] 122: The other-side distal end

BEST MODE

[0035] FIG. 1 illustrates an existing stitching structure in which an upper thread (yellow) and a lower thread (green) are continuously twisted, so that an angle of fiber bending is 180 or more, FIG. 2 is a picture of stitched fiber in which an angle of fiber bending is 180 or more, and it can be seen that when a load is applied in a z-direction of a composite material, a portion bent at 180 is easily broken as illustrated in FIG. 3.

[0036] That is, since the existing stitching structure is a structure in which fiber bending of 180 or more is essentially generated, when a z-directional load is generated, the stitching structure is weak and it is highly possible that the fiber is damaged or broken, and there is a disadvantage in that it is impossible to apply high-strength fiber, such as carbon fiber, for reinforcing strength.

[0037] A composite material stitching structure reinforced with z-direction fiber of the present invention for solving the disadvantage will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

[0038] FIG. 4 is a perspective view illustrating a composite material stitching structure according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the composite material stitching structure 100 according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention taken along line A-A.

[0039] For convenience of the description, a direction orthogonal to a surface direction of a composite material is defined as a z-direction. Accordingly, a lamination direction of a composite material 110 is also defined as the z-direction for description.

[0040] As illustrated, the composite material stitching structure includes a composite material laminated body 100 in which the plurality of composite materials 110 is laminated in the z-direction. As the composite material 110, prepreg, preform, or the like is applicable. In this case, the composite material 110 may also be a flat composite material 111 and may be a T-shaped composite material reinforced panel 112 of which a cross-section has a T shape as illustrated. The composite material laminated body 100 may also be formed of a combination of the single flat composite material 111 and the single T-shaped composite material reinforced panel 112 as illustrated, and may also be formed of a combination of two or more flat composite materials 111 and the single T-shaped composite material reinforced panel 112. That is, the number of flat composite materials 111 may be adjusted according to strength demanded by the composite material laminated body 100.

[0041] In order to bond the plurality of composite materials 110, the present invention includes composite fiber 120 formed of a single material. In general, a diameter of one strand 120a of the composite fiber 120 is about several m to several tens of m, and the predetermined number or more of strands is provided in the form of one bundle to form fiber, and 1 K indicates one fiber bundle formed of 1,000 strands. In general, in order to stitch a composite material, composite fiber in the form of 1 K is often used.

[0042] However, the form of the composite fiber 120 is not limited to the form of 1 K, and composite fiber of 1 K or less or 1 K or more may also be applied according to a strength condition required for bonding the composite material 110.

[0043] The composite fiber 120 may be formed of a high-strength material for reinforcing strength in the z-direction of the composite material laminated body 100. For example, the composite fiber 120 may be carbon fiber. When lots of organic polymer fiber is plasticized at about 1,000 to 3,000 C., the carbon fiber is generated, and is currently produced from acryl (poly acrylonitrile (PAN)) fiber, pitch fiber, and liquid crystal pitch fiber. The carbon fiber is mainly formed of carbon atom hexagonal mesh planes, but there are carbon fiber, in which the planes of the mesh are arranged to be almost parallel to a fiber axis (high-orientation, anisotropy), and carbon fiber, in which the planes of the mesh are disorderly gathered (isotropy). The PAN-based carbon fiber and the liquid crystal pitch-based carbon fiber are models of the former and the pitch-based carbon fiber is a model of the latter. The carbon fiber has low specific gravity, is not invaded by alkali or acid, and has a high heat-resisting property at an inert atmosphere. Carbon fiber has an electrical conductive property and wear resistance. The high-orientation carbon fiber has high tensile strength and high modulus of elasticity to be treated as high-performance (high grade) carbon fiber, and has a low coefficient of linear expansion. Further, the carbon fiber is surface-treated in order to improve adhesiveness for a resin. Active carbon fiber fabricated from rayon, PAN, and phenol fiber exhibits adsorption performance at the same level as that of granular activated carbon and a much higher adsorption-desorption speed than that of granular activated carbon. In addition, there is carbon fiber, which is capable of heating benzene and the like at around 1,000 C. and growing the benzene and the like up to 10 cm. Carbon fiber has high specific strength and specific modulus of elasticity, and particularly has specific modulus of elasticity, and the carbon fiber is used as a material, which is light and is not easily deformed when is cured by a resin.

[0044] The composite fiber 120 formed of the carbon fiber is formed by penetrating the composite material laminated body 100 in the lamination direction of the composite material laminated body 100. The composite fiber 120 is in the form of one bundle formed of a single material and is disposed while being spaced apart from one another in a plane direction of the composite material 111. In this case, the composite fiber 120 may be formed by penetrating the composite material laminated body 100 so that distal ends 121 and 122 of the composite fiber 120 protrude from the outermost portion of the composite material laminated body 100 toward the external side. The protruding distal ends 121 and 122 are bent at 90 or less with respect to the penetration direction, and more preferably, are vertically bent, to firmly bond the composite material laminated body 100.

[0045] FIG. 6 is a top plan view illustrating the composite material laminated body 100 according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a top plan view illustrating a composite material laminated body 100 according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

[0046] As illustrated, for the bent direction of the distal end of the composite fiber 120, the plurality of fiber strands is bent in a uniform direction as illustrated in FIG. 6. Further, the bent direction of the distal end 121 at one side of the composite fiber 120 may be opposite to the bent direction of the distal end 122 at the other side.

[0047] As another exemplary embodiment, composite fiber 120 is formed by one thousand or more fiber strands, and the plurality of fiber strands may be radially bent as illustrated in FIG. 7. When distal ends 121 and 122 of the composite fiber 120 are radially bent and fixed, z-directional strength of the composite material laminated body 100 may be further improved than that of the composite material laminated body 100 illustrated in FIG. 6.

[0048] Hereinafter, a manufacturing method of the present invention formed as described above will be described with reference to the drawing.

[0049] Referring to FIG. 8, first, the single material composite fiber 120 penetrates the composite material laminated body 100. In this case, the composite material laminated body 100 is in an uncured state, and the composite fiber 120 also penetrates the composite material laminated body 100 in a state of maintaining a flexible state before heat curing.

[0050] A needle structure, in which the composite fiber 120 is continuously supplied, may be applied for the penetration of the composite fiber 120, and the composite fiber 120 may first penetrate the composite material laminated body 100 through the needle and then the composite fiber 120 supplied from the needle may be accommodated on the penetrated composite material laminated body 100.

[0051] In this case, it is important to dispose the distal end 121 at one side of the composite fiber 120 and the distal end 122 at the other side to protrude from the outermost portion of the composite material laminated body 100 toward the external side. That is, the distal end 121 at one side of the composite fiber 120 protrudes from the lowermost portion of the composite fiber 120 downwards and the distal end 122 at the other side of the composite fiber 120 protrudes from the uppermost portion of the composite fiber 120 upwards.

[0052] Next, the distal end 121 at one side of the composite fiber 120 is bent and fixed by pressing one surface of the composite material laminated body 100 in the other direction, and the distal end 122 at the other side of the composite fiber 120 is bent and fixed by pressing the other surface of the composite material laminated body 100 in one direction. The foregoing operation is performed when the composite fiber 120 is in the flexible state, so that there is an advantage in that the composite fiber 120 is easily bent even with low force. The bending and fixing operation is an operation of heat curing the composite fiber 120 and is performed during the operation of heat curing the composite material laminated body 100 at the same time, and the composite fiber 120 is cut at a predetermined length interval and the composite material stitching structure is discontinuously reinforced with the composite fiber 120.

[0053] It shall not be construed that the technical spirit is limited to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Application ranges of the present invention are various as a matter of course, and the present invention may be variously modified and carried out at the levels of those skilled in the art without departing from the substance of the present invention claimed in the claims. Accordingly, the improvement and the change of the present invention belong to the scope of the present invention as long as being obvious to those skilled in the art.