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Courses > Advanced Composite Tooling (10 day)
course scheduling
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| WORKSHOP EXERCISES |
•Modify a master-model or permanent pattern to facilitate necessary tool design features needed in the subsequent mold and fixtures.
•Take a plaster splash from the model.
•Make a plastic-faced pattern (PFP) from the splash.
•Fabricating either a carbon fiber or fiberglass mold using the latest low-temperature curing prepreg systems; includes bagging and (non-autoclave) curing processes & procedures.
•Fabricating glass-epoxy fixture laminates using wet-layup/syntactic core materials, methods & techniques.
•Fabricate a permanent vacuum bag using low temperature vulcanizing sheet rubber along with fluroelastomeric edge-band materials, inclusion of hardware, selected fiber reinforcements, etc.
•Build a "tool-proof" part laminate in the layup mold.
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| COURSE DESCRIPTION |
Previous experience with composite materials & processing IS A PREREQUISITE! For those who do not have a thorough background in the basics of advanced composites, our Phase 1 Fabrication & Damage Repair course is highly recommended as a prerequisite course.
This ten-day course provides a balance of lecture and hands-on exercises necessary to develop working skills for the fabrication of composite tooling (molds, fixtures, and permanent vacuum bags) for producing advanced composite components.
The students will learn through actual practice, the use of master models,fabrication of plaster and plastic faced plaster splashes and patterns used to fabricate fiberglass or carbon fiber reinforced plastic tools and permanent vacuum bags in this workshop.
Primarily a hands-on workshop, enough time is spent in the classroom to develop an understanding of design standards and fabrication basics, but most of the learning comes through actual fabrication.
State-of-the-art low temperature curing prepreg materials are used to fabricate layup molds and wet lay-up techniques are utilized for making trim/holding fixtures.
This course is ideal for all composite tool designers and fabricators that want to greatly improve the quality of their tool designs and/or their end products. |
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| KEY LECTURE ELEMENTS |
Tool design considerations:
•Prototype vs. production tooling.
•Complex vs. simple geometries.
•Indexing and part/tool coordination.
•Realistic part & tool design tolerances.
•Thermal properties; Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE).
•Springback allowance.
•Integrated stiffening.
•Backup structure designs.
•Damage prevention.
•Vacuum & pressure integrity.
•Lightweight tool-design concepts.
Fundamentals: Master tooling. The tooling family. Tool codes/designations.
Mold fabrication considerations: Ply orientation, controlled surfaces, release agents and problems, room-temperature & elevated-temperature curing materials, wet lay-up & prepreg materials & processes, substructure materials.
Tool repair materials and procedures.
Permanent vacuum bags & semi-rigid caul tooling.
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course scheduling
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