Patent ID: 9248613
Filing Date: 2016-02-02
CPC Classification: B29B,B29C,B29K,B29L

Claim Text:
1. A method of making a thick thermoplastic composite part, comprising: assembling a ply stack including a plurality of thermoplastic composite plies into a generally flat, unshaped condition; pre-consolidating the ply stack in the generally flat, unshaped condition, including softening the plies by heating the plies in the ply stack to a pre-consolidation temperature below the melting temperature of the thermoplastic, maintaining the ply stack at pre-consolidation temperature over a pre-consolidation dwell time, and compressing the ply stack at the pre-consolidation temperature by applying pressure to the plies sufficient to de-bulk the ply stack over the pre-consolidation dwell time; subsequent to pre-consolidating the ply stack over the pre-consolidation dwell time, pre-forming the pre-consolidated ply stack at a temperature below the melting temperature of the thermoplastic, including preforming at least one feature in the pre-consolidated ply stack such that the pre-formed ply stack takes a general shape of a final part; and consolidating the pre-formed ply stack, including heating the ply stack to at least the melting temperature of the thermoplastic.