PANELS AND PROCESSES THEREFOR

• Main Authors: SCHULTE MICHAEL DOMINIC, LIN WENDY WEN-LING, DAVIS PETER KENNEDY, AHO ERIC JOSEPH, O'BRIEN MICHAEL JOSEPH, STEPHENS BRIAN DOMINIC
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 21.02.2013
• Subjects: AFTER-TREATMENT OF THE SHAPED PRODUCTS, e.g. REPAIRING; CHEMISTRY; COMBINED OPERATIONS; COMPOSITIONS BASED THEREON; MACHINE TOOLS; MACROMOLECULAR COMPOUNDS OBTAINED OTHERWISE THAN BY REACTIONSONLY INVOLVING UNSATURATED CARBON-TO-CARBON BONDS; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; METALLURGY; ORGANIC MACROMOLECULAR COMPOUNDS; OTHER WORKING OF METAL; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; SHAPING OF MATERIAL IN A PLASTIC STATE, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDEDFOR; SHAPING OR JOINING OF PLASTICS; THEIR PREPARATION OR CHEMICAL WORKING-UP; TRANSPORTING; UNIVERSAL MACHINE TOOLS; WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE, IN GENERAL

Polymer-based materials and processes suitable for producing panels, for example, panels for use in a fan shroud abradable seal of a turbofan engine. Such a process includes introducing constituents of an expandable foam material into a continuous forming apparatus that continuously compounds the constituents into a partially-cured compounded polymeric material, which is then continuously formed with the continuous forming apparatus to produce a continuous form having a constant cross-sectional shape transverse to a continuous forming direction of the continuous forming apparatus. A portion of the continuous form is then deformed to produce a preform, and the preform is cured within a restricted volume to cause the preform to expand and produce the panel.