Patent ID: 7763192

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a composite wheel beam key which comprises the sequential steps of: forming, entirely from oxidized polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers, a fibrous preform blank in a shape of a wheel beam key having a configuration comprising a rectangular body with a neck area located at an end thereof and a through bore located at an opposite end thereof, wherein the fiber volume fraction of said preform blank is at least 50% and wherein 80% of the fibers in the preform blank are oriented parallel to the length of the preform blank; carbonizing the oxidized polyacrylonitrile fibers to form carbon fibers; rigidifying the carbonized preform blank by subjecting it to at least one cycle of CVD; grinding the surface of the preform blank to open pores on its surface; and subjecting the open-pored preform blank to RTM processing with pitch by heating the pitch to 50° C. or more above its softening point and then forcing the pitch into the pores of the preform blank at a pressure of 500 psi to 3500 psi, followed by carbonization, thereby producing a composite wheel beam key having a maximum internal porosity of 10% of less and having a density of from 1.5 g/cc to 2.1 g/cc.