Patent ID: 8070901

Claim:
A method for manufacturing an elongate structural element configured for stiffening a shell structure, said method comprising: preforming a load-carrying elongate reinforcement member of a multilayer composite sheet material on an elongate rigid form tool, precuring the reinforcement member to make it form-stable removing the precured reinforcement member from the form tool, placing the precured reinforcement member on a base-forming body having a surface corresponding to a shell structure surface, to which the structural element is to be attached, said precured reinforcement member having a web portion with a surface configuration corresponding to an inner surface of a web portion of the structural element to be manufactured, and two flange portions directed inwardly to oppose each other while engaging an opposite surface of the base-forming body, applying an elongate hat profile of uncured composite material over the precured reinforcement member, so that a web portion of the hat profile covers the web portion of the precured reinforcement member, and two outwardly directed flange portions of the hat profile engage the opposite surface of the base-forming body, and curing the elongate hat profile together with the precured reinforcement member so as to form a preformed, cured, integrated elongate structural element for attachment to a predetermined surface of a shell structure.