The development of two tooling concepts for the production of composite sine-wave beams

The production of composite sine-wave beams is time consuming, difficult and therefore often expensive. In order to overcome these problems two different tooling concepts were developed successfully: a mould used for Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM) and a mould used for Autoclave processing. The moulds had to satisfy conditions like low tooling costs and good handling properties. The moulds should deliver sine-wave beams with tight outer dimensional tolerances and the amount of material wasted during the production process should be limited. This paper describes the problems rising during the production of composite sine-wave beams, the sine-wave beam design used for this study and the two different tooling concepts which were developed. The two tooling and production principles will be discussed in detail and evaluated.