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2 AUTHORS:
J.P. Anderson
M. Cengiz Altan
University of Oklahoma
21 PUBLICATIONS 11 CITATIONS
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INTRODUCTION
The composite manufacturing industry has been presented with significant challenges in producing geometrically
complex and hollow components with high mechanical performance. To date, the most economically viable choice for the
fabrication of hollow components has been injection/compression molding using short fiber reinforced resin systems [1].
However, the components fabricated from these molding methods oftentimes have lower mechanical performance (e.g.,
stiffness and strength) when compared to those with continuous fiber reinforcement. For this reason, in industries where
strength to weight ratio has high priority, such as in defense and aerospace, continuous fiber reinforced materials are often
used. Currently, pultrusion and filament winding are regularly used with great success to create hollow, structural
composite components with continuous fiber reinforcement. These process have been found capable of consistently
producing parts with good surface quality and a low number of defects. However, the parts compatible with the pultrusion
and filament winding fabrication techniques are generally axis-symmetric, exhibit limited geometric complexity, and have
uniform wall thicknesses. To overcome the shortcomings of filament winding and pultrusion, the composite industry has
from the mid 1980s considered/used variations of bladder molding for the fabrication of hollow composite parts which
can exhibit high geometric complexity and asymmetry (e.g., aircraft propeller blades, and wings with integral ribs/spars).
The bladder molding technique is a fabrication process in which a laminate layup is draped around an expandable or
inflatable bladder which is then pressurized within a closed mold. The bladders used are often made from either silicone
rubber, nylon, or rubber latex depending on a number of factors such as part geometry and cost [2]. Once the fabrication
assembly has been completed, it is heated using either an oven or autoclave to achieve part cure. Depending on the bladder
molding technique used, the consolidation pressure is either applied gradually, as with an expandable bladder, or
immediately with the use of an inflatable bladder. These variations of bladder molding have been used successfully to
produce continuously fiber reinforced hollow composite parts with void volume fractions less than 5% [3, 4].
EXPANDABLE BLADDERS
In this variation of the bladder molding process, a bladder is produced such that it is slightly undersized and is placed
in the interior of the laminate which has been laid against a female metallic mold. Upon the heating of the mold to
facilitate part cure, the relatively high coefficient of thermal expansion of the bladder relative to the mold material is
employed to cause a consolidation pressure to be applied to the laminate as shown in Figure 1. The primary disadvantages
of this bladder molding variation are: (i) an oven/autoclave or complex tooling with embedded heaters is required to
supply requisite cure temperature; (ii) maximum consolidation pressure is dictated by cure temperature.
FIGURE 1. Use of expandable bladders for the manufacturing of hollow composite components [5].
INFLATABLE BLADDERS
In the bladder molding process which uses an inflatable bladder, a bladder is produced whose geometry is near the net
shape of the inside of the part to be produced. During the set-up, dry or impregnated (i.e., prepreg) fabric/fibers are draped
around an inflatable bladder. After the laminate has been placed, the mold is closed, the bladder is inflated to the desired
consolidation pressure, and the mold is heated to enable part cure as shown in Figure 2. The advantages of using an
inflatable bladder instead of an expandable bladder are: (i) parts can be fabricated using prepreg or dry fibers impregnated
using resin transfer molding (RTM); (ii) consolidation pressure can be varied independently of cure temperature [6].
However, the disadvantage of requiring an oven/autoclave or complex tooling with embedded heaters to supply requisite
cure temperature remains.
the fabrication assembly is no longer required to be conductive as the heat for part cure is transferred by conduction
through the bladder. Thus, the use of cost-effective materials which are thermally insulative in conjunction with the
limited use of traditional mold materials is a possibility. In a recent research by Anderson and Altan [3], a thin aluminum
shell mold with a plaster casing was used to fabricate composite cylinders from prepreg. The energy required to produce
the parts was reduced by 50% when compared to the traditional inflatable bladder molding process. Moreover, the fiber
volume fraction and mechanical properties of the parts produced were shown to be equivalent to laminates manufactured
by hot-press molding [2]. In fact, the BACM process can be optimized by controlling resin outflow by the use of o-ring
seals and bleeder cloths. It was reported that hollow composite parts can be produced with void and fiber volume fractions
as low as 0.2% and high as 67%, respectively. Thus, the BACM fabrication technique, when optimized, may be a suitable
process for the fabrication of primary aerospace structures [7].
FIGURE 3. Bladder Assisted Composite Manufacturing (BACM) fabrication assembly and process schematic [3].
REFERENCES
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M.G. Bader, Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 33, 913-934 (2002).
D. Rebard, "Bladder Molding With Latex in the Recreational Industry- Lessons Learned" in 49th International SAMPE
Symposium and Exhibition, edited by SAMPE,Long Beach, CA,2004, pp. 79-82.
J.P. Anderson and M.C. Altan, Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology, 134, 0445011-0445017 (2012).
A. Salomi, et al., Advances in Polymer Technology, 26, 21-32 (2007).
U. Lehmann and W. Michaeli, Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 29, 803-810 (1998).
H. Ghiasi, et al., Applied Composite Materials, 17, 159-173 (2010).
J.P. Anderson, "Manufacturing and Microstructural Modeling of Geometrically Complex Composite Components Produced
by Bladder Assisted Composite Manufacturing (BACM)", Ph.D. Thesis, University of Oklahoma, 2013.