A major obstacle for BMD systems to the introduction of new structures and designs using high-performance composites is the time and cost of the tooling required both to prototype and test new components and to transfer accepted designs to manufacturing. The development of reformable, reusable tooling based on 2Phase TechnologiesÂ’ patented state-change materials will reduce the time, cost and effort associated with conventional or alternative tooling. It will also provide the flexibility for prototyping and short-run manufacture of advanced composite structures. State-change materials are produced from mixtures of liquids and solids and can be selected to permit tailoring of the required properties. They can be switched from the liquid state to the consolidated state at room temperature with no change in volume. Once in the consolidated state they can be hardened to a ceramic phase. After processing the state-change materials can be returned to the liquid state for reuse and tool reformation or modification. Building on the demonstrated capabilities for the state-change materials and reformable tooling systems, 2Phase Technologies proposes in Phase I to enhance both scale and complexity of tooling that can be created to enable the prototyping and manufacture of complex composite structures for BMD applications. Anticipated Benefits/Commercial Applications: The results of this research will contribute to reduced development cycles in going from 'art to part' and greatly reduced costs in the procurement of tooling for prototyping and short-run manufacturing. It will have numerous commercial applications in the transportation (automotive), commercial aerospace and marine industries where this technology will decrease time-to-market, reduce per-part cost and increase short-run production efficiencies and reduce supplier costs for maintenance and repair of tooling.
Keywords: Low-cost tooling, composites, prototyping, reusable tooling, reformable tooling, short-run manufacturing, trapped tooling
