Manufacture of stiffened composite structures

摘要

A method of manufacturing a stiffened composite structure comprising the steps of: forming the structure around a mandrel tool; using digital camera data to record the positions of desired pad locations on the structure; bonding pads to the structure at the desired locations; curing the pads and structure; forming stiffeners from composite materials including forming a plurality of tabs at points on the stiffener corresponding to the pads on the structure; using a laser theodolite connected to receive the stored information of the pad locations relative to a datum point on the stiffener to locate the stiffener tabs accurately on the pads; and bonding the stiffeners to the structure via the tabs and pads. Preferably, the location tabs and pads are machined off the final stiffened structure after autoclaving.