Patent ID: 9221235
Filing Date: 2015-12-29
Classification: B29C,B29L,B32B,B64C,Y02T

Abstract:
1. A method of assembling a stiffened composite structure, comprising: providing a supply of stiffeners, wherein each stiffener defines a stiffener cavity; providing a supply of filler structures; loading a respective stiffener from the supply of stiffeners onto an inner mold line layup mandrel; positioning a respective filler structure from the supply of filler structures on an upper side of a filler location tool and positioning a noodle along the longitudinal edges of the respective filler structure; applying an adhesive strip to an upper side of the respective filler structure; following the loading, the positioning, and the applying, locating, with the filler location tool, the respective filler structure within the stiffener cavity of the respective stiffener, wherein the locating includes: following the loading, the positioning, the applying, and the locating, rotating the inner mold line layup mandrel to position the inner mold line layup mandrel for subsequent loading of a subsequent stiffener and subsequent locating of a subsequent filler structure; following the rotating, repeating the loading, the positioning, the applying, and the locating to load a plurality of stiffeners onto the inner mold line layup mandrel and to locate a plurality of filler structures within the stiffener cavities of the plurality of stiffeners; and following the repeating, affixing a skin segment over the plurality of filler structures and to the plurality of stiffeners loaded on the inner mold line layup mandrel to form at least a portion of the stiffened composite structure; wherein the loading and the positioning are performed as parallel processes during the assembling of the stiffened composite structure.