Products and Applications from Nevada Composites

Surface Sealing

Case Studies — Single-Sided Tooling

  1. Reverse engineer existing component to produce a CAD file
  2. Use Fused Deposition Modeling to make master/mold
    • Feasible because master sees no temperature and only rough vacuum
    • Master has high-quality surface but is lightweight and porous. (Porosity facilitates vacuum-forming of tool and reduces FDM resin cost.)
  3. Make next-generation tool on FDM master.
  4. To seal surface, bag tool surface or apply coating.
  5. Layup, debulk, and cure as usual: 177°C/350°F & 700 kPa/100 psi
FDM tool, mandrel, and part Line diagram of Cagiva motorcycle fairing Installed Cagiva motorcycle fairing

Rapid tooling to produce replacement motorcycle parts

Case Studies — Washout Mandrels

Mandrels with complex features and tolerances of greater than ±0.13 mm (0.005 in.)

Precision machined Green-Aero<sup>SM</sup> mandrels

Retrofit ducting for legacy military aircraft produced using Green-AeroSM washout mandrels

Bellows mandrel with metal rings View of mandrel consolidation and washout

Washout mandrels for very high temperature fabrication

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