Patent ID: 11897074
Assignee: THE BOEING COMPANY
Field: Machine tools (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 8:
9. A method of making a needle array for forming ultrasonic perforations, the method comprising:
coupling a plurality of needles to a support plate, wherein the plurality of needles is arranged to form the needle array according to claim 1, wherein each respective needle of the plurality of needles extends longitudinally from a respective first end to a respective second end forming a tip, wherein the plurality of needles are configured to repeatedly contact the workpiece at the ultrasonic operating frequency such that each respective needle of the needle array forms the respective hole through the workpiece, wherein the support plate is configured to couple the plurality of needles together, wherein the support plate is further configured to secure a respective position of each respective needle with respect to each other needle of the plurality of needles such that the plurality of needles defines the needle array, wherein the first ends of the plurality of needles are coupled to the support plate in the coupling the plurality of needles, and wherein the plurality of needles extend away from the support plate such that the tips of the plurality of needles are spaced apart from the support plate;
selecting a respective length of each respective needle of the plurality of needles to define a desired contact shape, contact contour, or contact plane collectively defined by the tips of the needles; and
arranging each respective needle with respect to one another in a desired distribution pattern based on the respective lengths to form the needle array, wherein the desired distribution pattern is selected from the group consisting of the bilinear distribution and the pyramid distribution.