Development of Organizational and Intermediate Level Repair Materials and Processes for V-22 Composite Structure

The V-22 Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) program has initiated the development of maintenance and repair methodologies for V-22 composite structure. Under the first phase of this effort, candidate materials and processes have been examined for use in Organizational ("O") and Intermediate ("I") level repairs. The extensive use of composite materials in primary structure and dynamic components has resulted in the use of new materials and processes developed through a combined government-industry effort. The program has made use of existing materials and techniques developed for the F/A-18 E/F composite repair program, which were modified to fulfill V-22 requirements. Material storage, processing, and inspection requirements are discussed, as is the development of an optimized debulk and cure process for wet layup laminate fabrication. Basic material properties and design allowables data requirements are presented. Experimental results demonstrate that use of the optimized process produces acceptable levels of laminate porosity and provides properties which compare favorably to autoclave cured laminates. Ongoing experiments and subsequent repair program research are discussed.