Industrial Consultancy & Sponsored Research (IC&SR) , IIT Madras
Devices and Methods for Manufacturing Corrugated Composite Panels
Categories for this Invention
Category- Advance Materials and Manufacturing
Industry Classification:
- NIC (2008)-30305 Manufacture of parts and accessories of the aircraft and spacecraft of this class (major assemblies such as fuselages, wings, doors etc); 16212- Manufacture of particle board and fibreboard including densified wood;
- NAICS (2022)- 33641- Aerospace Product and Parts Manufacturing; 322211- Corrugated and Solid Fiber Box Manufacturing;
- Applications- Panels and structures used in automobiles or aero structures and furnite
Market drivers:
The Aerospace Composites Market is projected to grow from USD 27.79 billion in 2024 to USD 43.47 billion by 2029 with a CAGR of 9.36%
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Problem Statement
- Composite materials are difficult to manufacture and require special techniques for manufacturing.
- Currently researchers made several geometries from composite materials, but corrugated composite has yet not been made due to difficulty in manufacturing.
- Conventional method of assembling a corrugated truss structure by building up individual shapes formed over mandrels or shaped press are either laborious or require expensive dies to form the corrugations.
- There is a need for a better way to manufacture corrugated fabric composites that overcome above challenges.
Technology
- Provide a mould with two ladder-like frames
- Place a sheet of fabric infiltrated by a liquid resin between the top and bottom frames
- Form a corrugated structure of the fabric by interleaving the top and bottom frames.
- Place the top and bottom sheets of the fabric infiltrated with the resin on either sides of the corrugated structure to form a composite panel.
- Place the mould with the composite fabric structure in a vacuum bag and apply vacuum for uniform distribution of the liquid resin and pressure to bond for 24 hours.
- Remove the mould with composite structure from the vacuum bag.
- Separate the frames with rods from the opposite panel structure
- Cure the structure to obtain the corrugated composite panel with a top sheet, a bottom sheet and a corrugated portion there between
Key Features / Value Proposition
- Corrugation in a composite material is successfully achieved by this invention. Whereas, conventional corrugation methods are incapable of fabricating corrugated sheets using composite materials.
- The process uses a simple ladder-like apparatus that can be easily manufactured, assembled and disassembled. Whereas, conventional corrugation processes are laborious and require expensive dies for fabrication of corrugated materials.
- The corrugated structure obtained has high structural rigidity and light weight making it suitable for high performance applications such as aero structures and transport.
- Conventional manufacturing methods require sophisticated equipment such as mandrels to build individual shapes or shaped press for forming corrugations. Whereas, the invented process uses a apparatus having a simple profile and shape that is easy and affordable to manufacture.
Questions about this Technology?
Contact For Licensing
sm-marketing@imail.iitm.ac.in
ipoffice2@iitm.ac.in
Research Lab
Prof. Prashant Rawat
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Intellectual Property
- IITM IDF Ref.2477
- IN 202341050413 Patent Application
Technology Readiness Level
TRL 4
Technology Validated in Lab