Patent ID: 7625510

Claim:
A method of forming a composite production part, the method comprising: (a) providing a mold of a production part; (b) applying a liquid, ceramic-filled face coating on the mold; (c) forming a substrate by laying up dry composite fiber materials on the liquid, ceramic-filled face coating while the coating is still tacky, the coating having a hardness in excess of a hardness of the substrate when the coating is cured; (d) providing dry woven fiber composite preforms, each having two parallel walls extending from a base, inserting pre-cured composite boards between the parallel walls and placing bases of the preforms on the substrate so that edges of at least some of the boards abut non-edge portions of other boards to form a support structure for the substrate; (e) positioning the substrate and the support structure in an evacuated environment; (f) injecting resin into the evacuated environment such that the resin infiltrates the substrate and the preforms of the support structure; (g) forming a composite tool by curing the infiltrated substrate and the preforms in an oven without the use of an autoclave; (h) removing the composite tool from the evacuated environment and the mold; then (i) laying up composite materials for the production part on a side of the composite tool that was previously in contact with the ceramic-filled face coating.