Carbon Foam Self-Heated Tooling for Out-of-Autoclave Composites Manufacturing

Carbon Foam Electrically Heated Tooling (EHT) also has several commercial applications in the commercial and defense industry, which also share NASA's issue of manufacturing composite structures in an out-of-autoclave environment. These industries also rely heavily on composite material to maintain low-weight and high-strength designs. Touchstone is actively working with prime contractors and DoD agencies such as the Air Force and Missile Defense Agency to utilize CFOAM tooling technology. Programs that can potentially benefit from CFOAM EHT development are the SM3, THAAD, and KEI missile systems along with other commercial aerospace programs. Aerospace applications that will benefit from OOA EHT technology development include helicopter blade spars, missile fairings, airplane fuselage sections, and numerous others.

Carbon Foam Electrically Heated Tooling (EHT) has direct application for NASA programs that involve manufacturing large composite structures in an out-of-autoclave (OOA) process. Programs such as the ARES V Heavy Launch Vehicle as well as the ARES I Crew Launch Vehicle are utilizing composite materials in order to maintain weight efficiency. Manufacturing composites OOA with a CFOAM EHT will maintain process cost efficiency while keeping weights low. The EHT technology application is not limited to large structures, however, and does have utility for any NASA component made from composite materials. Specifically, on ARES V, the Composite Payload Shroud, the Composite Interstage, and the Composite Structures of both the Core Stage and the Earth Departure Stage are all targeted applications for CFOAM EHT technology. On ARES I, the Composite Frustrum of the First Stage, the Composite Interstage structures, and others are also applications for CFOAM EHT technology. Composite components of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle are another application of EHT cure process. More »