Patent ID: 7635076

Claim:
A method of bonding a first component body to at least one additional component body over a large dimension bonding region, comprising the steps of: disposing at least one sheet of reactive composite material between the first component body and each additional component body; initiating an exothermic reaction in said sheet of reactive composite material, said exothermic reaction resulting in the formation of a bond between said first component body and said at least one additional component body over the lame dimension bonding region; wherein said large dimension bonding region has a surface area greater than the surface area of a single sheet of reactive composite material; wherein said step of disposing includes disposing a plurality of horizontally adjacent and non-overlapping sheets of reactive composite material in a plane of said bonding region between the first component body and each additional component body; and wherein said exothermic reaction is initiated in each of said plurality of horizontally adjacent sheets.