METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MOLDING COMPOSITE ARTICLES

摘要

A method and apparatus for molding composite articles includes a lower frame (14) with a contoured flange, a semi-flexible lower skin (16) and a semi-rig id upper mold half (18). The frame has a contoured flange (24) for drawing a vacuum on a flange (62) of the lower skin. The upper mold half is formed fro m a skin (20) having a trusswork to make the skin semi-rigid. Pressure sensors (66) are mounted in the mold cavity to sense pressure change of the vacuum with respect to ambient and to control the injection rate of the resin in th e cavity.