Patent ID: 11964410
Assignee: THE BOEING COMPANY
Field: Other special machines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 0:
1. A method for fabricating a composite part, the method comprising steps of:
placing a base composite layer into a cavity of a tooling surface;
inserting a mandrel into the cavity of the tooling surface such that the base composite layer is between the mandrel and the tooling surface;
applying a skin to the mandrel and the base composite layer so that a package, comprising the mandrel, the base composite layer, and the skin, is formed;
enclosing the package in a vacuum bag;
curing the base composite layer and the skin; and
removing the mandrel from the cavity of the tooling surface following the step of curing the base composite layer and the skin,
wherein:
the mandrel comprises elastomeric components, aligned end to end and linearly spaced apart from each other to form a segmented mandrel body,
each of the elastomeric components comprises a first surface and a second surface,
the first surface comprises protrusions, and
the protrusions of the first surface contact the second surface of an adjacent one of the elastomeric components to maintain spacing between the elastomeric components.