Composite materials and methods and apparatus for making same

Abstract

A composite material comprising a solid particulate material and a matrix material encapsulating the solid particulate material, wherein each dividual particle of the solid particulate material is in contact with at least one adjacent solid particle. A method comprising providing a solid particulate material, providing a mold, evacuating the solid particulate material in the mold to remove gas in the void space between the particles of the particulate material, evaluating the mold, introducing the evacuated solid particulate material into the mold, providing a fluid matrix material, and introducing the fluid matrix material into the void spaces while constraining the solid particulate material.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a composite material and its manufacturing method and equipment (device). Background technique [0002] Shaping and forming deformations: [0003] At least some materials and methods currently used for mold components produce dimensionally inaccurate part shapes due to forming deformations. Formation distortion is caused by significant material dimensional changes (typically shrinkage and distortion) that occur during the forming, curing and demolding processes. These dimensional changes may result from: a) temperature changes; b) pressure changes; c) phase changes of the material; d) chemical reactions of the material; and / or e) other material state changes. [0004] To achieve the desired dimensional accuracy, in current practice molded parts are often manufactured dimensionally larger than desired and additional operations such as machining or grinding are used, often time-consuming and expensive processes, to remo...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

This traditional method has three major disadvantages: breakage of the microbeads during mixing, poor mixing at higher volume fractions of microspheres and defect formation

[0024] Disadvantage: Mechanical mixing of beads into matrix material often traps (trapped) gas in the mixture

[0029] b) Imprecise thickness: With traditional bonding materials, when the parts are pressed together, the thickness of the bonding layer is difficult to maintain at an exact optimum thickness over the entire surface area of ​​the mating surfaces, which results in a weaker , and loses precision with respect to the relative position and relative orientation of the components

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