Elastomeric gasket for fuel access door of an aircraft wing and a method for making the same

摘要

An assembly for use on an aircraft wing having an aircraft skin and a fuel tank, the assembly comprising a metal access door for accessing the fuel tank, a metal retainer ring for engaging the wing and the access door. Fasteners removably couple the access door to the retainer ring. A lip, which may be on the wing surface, is configured to receive a perimeter of the access door when the access door is coupled to the retainer ring. A polyurethane elastomeric gel gasket having a metallic skeleton is configured to lay between the access door and a lip of the metal wing surface. Under compression, the polyurethane will deform and squeeze out the edges and flatten so as to provide metal-to-metal contact between the access door and the lip.

主权项

1. A gasket for use with a fuel access door having a generally flat inner facing mating wall and having an outer perimeter and an opposed generally flat outward facing mating wall having an inner perimeter on a wing of an aircraft, the fuel access door adapted to be removably fastened to the wing, the gasket in a pre-compressed state comprising:
a porous, partially open metallic skeleton being generally tabular in nature and generally ring shaped, the skeleton having a generally flat upper surface and a generally flat lower surface, an inner perimeter wall and an outer perimeter wall; and a pliable, resilient, elastomeric, sticky, substantially air bubble free, coherent, homogeneous, silicon-free polyurethane body, substantially filling the openings of the skeleton and being generally tabular in nature, the body being ring shaped having a generally flat, tacky upper surface, a generally flat, tacky lower surface, an inner perimeter wall, and an outer perimeter wall;
wherein the inner perimeter walls of both the skeleton and the body generally conform to the shape defined by the inner perimeter of the outward facing wall and wherein the outer perimeter walls of both the skeleton and the body generally conform to the shape defined by the outer perimeter of the fuel access door; and
wherein the gasket is adapted to lay between the inner facing mating wall member and the outward facing mating wall member and receive compression therebetween; wherein the skeleton has multiple separate tabular layers with the polyurethane body substantially filling the openings in the multiple layers.