Development and Demonstration of Manufacturing Processes for Fabricating Graphite/LARC 160 Polyimide Structural Elements.

This program was conducted to develop and demonstrate manufacturing technologies for the structural application of Celion graphiteLARC-160 polyimide composite material. The program consisted of two parts Process Development and Fabrication of Demonstration Components. Process development included establishing quality assurance of the basic composite material and processing, nondestructive inspection of fabricated components, developing processes for specific structural forms, and qualification of processes through mechanical testing. In the second part of the program, demonstration components were fabricated using the processes developed in part one. The demonstration components consisted of flat laminates, skinstringer panels, honeycomb panels, chopped fiber compression moldings, and a Technology Demonstrator Segment TDS representative of the Space Shuttle aft body flap. The TDS is a full-size testable component and will be subjected to mechanical loading at room temperature and 26O C simulated fatigue, 400 cycles between 5-100 of limit load at 260 C and thermal cycling, 125 cycles between -107 C and 316 C. TDS test results will be reported in a separate final report.