Patent ID: 7622066

Claim:
A method for manufacturing a fiber-reinforced resin part, the method comprising: positioning a plurality of fibers on a mold surface of a tool, the mold surface including a first side region, a second side region, and an interior transition region positioned between the first and second side regions; covering the fibers with a sealing layer; pressing a first portion of the covered fibers against the first side region of the mold surface with a tooling aid without pressing a second portion of the covered fibers against the second side region of the mold surface; while pressing the first portion of covered fibers against the first side region, pressing a third portion of the covered fibers against the interior transition region of the mold surface by inflating an expandable member operably coupled to the tooling aid against the sealing layer to compress the third portion of covered fibers between the expandable member and the interior transition region, without pressing the second portion of covered fibers against the second side region of the mold surface; while pressing the third portion of covered fibers against the interior transition region of the mold surface with the pressing device, allowing the second portion of covered fibers on the second side region to move toward the interior transition region; and removing air from between the sealing layer and the mold surface to draw at least a partial vacuum between the sealing layer and the mold surface.