Patent ID: 11926077
Assignee: THE BOEING COMPANY
Field: Other special machines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 8:
9. A composite sandwich panel comprising:
a first composite skin;
a second composite skin;
a hollow cell core between the first composite skin and the second composite skin, wherein the first composite skin and the second composite and the hollow cell core are consolidated by a crush pressure applied to an entirety of the first composite skin and the second composite skin in contact with the hollow cell core resulting in a 5% to 10% reduction in thickness of the entire composite panel to a nominal thickness;
a first over-crush edge region formed by an over-crush pressure applied to portions of the first composite skin, the second composite skin, and the hollow cell core, the first over-crush edge region having a first thickness at least 40% less than the nominal thickness of the composite sandwich panel, the nominal thickness being a thickness of the composite sandwich panel away from the first over-crush edge region, wherein the nominal thickness is in a range of 0.083 inches to 0.50 inches, and wherein the first over-crush edge region has a length of at least 0.25 inches over which the thickness of the composite sandwich panel decreases; and
an open edge having no over-crush edge region, wherein the open edge is the nominal thickness of the composite sandwich panel.