Assembly of Interior Composite Panels Utilizing Bonded Interlocking Joints

Most commercial aircraft interior panels are constructed of honeycomb cored composite sandwich panels. The panels are conventionally joined using metal brackets fastened with screws. Over the past decade, most major interior fabricators have been in transition to a method of joinery using bonded interlocking joints. This method has recently been adopted by Boeing, and is known here as Tab and Slot Joinery.

These interlocking joints are defined and illustrated. The history of the development effort is outlined. Design considerations are developed. Test programs are described, including a designed experiment and a special case fatigue test. Advantages of this new joinery method over the conventional are shown.