A manufacturing process for a carbon fiber grid antenna surface and its product

Abstract

The present invention discloses a manufacturing process and product of a carbon fiber grid antenna surface, which relates to the field of new material preparation. The manufacturing process of the carbon fiber grid antenna surface includes steps such as mold positioning, silicone strip pasting, carbon fiber strip manufacturing, and carbon fiber layer paving. This solution designs a filling and pressing scheme for silicone strips and silicone plates, solves technical problems such as the inability to process the right-angle design of the antenna surface grid and the inability to arrange the antenna surface grid in the normal direction of the curved surface during the traditional machining process, ensures the performance, usage requirements, and appearance quality of the product. This method can be formed in one step, avoiding secondary machining, reducing the occupation of the mold, and shortening the production cycle of the product. In addition, outside the parabolic mold, all flexible materials are used as the structural parts, which not only facilitates operation but also ensures that during the forming process, the external pressure acts evenly on each surface of the carbon fiber, improving the product quality and avoiding the damage of the mechanical force to the fiber layer in the machining method.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of preparation of new materials, and specifically to a manufacturing process and product of a carbon fiber grid antenna surface. Background Art

[0002] The carbon fiber grid antenna panel belongs to a parabolic antenna, but it is different in form from an ordinary carbon fiber antenna panel. Due to the use environment and requirements, thinner holes of unequal lengths are designed on the surface of the antenna panel, which are called grids. In the design of the grid antenna, the thickness of the panel is relatively thin, and it is designed as a solid carbon fiber structure. The flanges around are relatively high, which plays a role in ensuring the rigidity of the product, as Figure 1 shown.

[0003] For the processing of traditional grid antenna panels, a carbon fiber panel without holes is first made. After the panel is formed, the product is attached to the mold to ensure that the product fits the mold position, and then they are placed on a numerical control machine together for processing. The holes are processed by mechanical machining. The grids formed by the traditional processing method are as Figure 2 shown, and have the following disadvantages: 1) Mechanical processing requires the cooperation of a mold, which will occupy the mold and cause the production cycle of the product to be too long; 2) In mechanical processing, the right angles designed for the holes cannot be processed and are in the form of rounded corners; 3) The direction of the holes in mechanical processing is the advancing and retracting direction of the machine tool cutter, and the directions are the same, rather than the normal direction of the antenna surface, which is different from the actual design; 4) The mechanical processing of carbon fiber products causes serious wear to the cutter. Summary of the Invention

[0004] In view of this, the present invention provides a manufacturing process and product of a carbon fiber grid antenna surface. The manufacturing process of the carbon fiber grid antenna surface includes steps such as mold positioning, silicone strip pasting, carbon fiber strip making, carbon fiber layer paving, and silicone plate covering. Novel silicone strip and silicone plate filling and pressing schemes are designed, which solve the technical problems that the right-angle design of the antenna surface grid cannot be processed and the antenna surface grid cannot be arranged in the normal direction of the curved surface during the traditional mechanical processing process.

[0005] In order to achieve the object of the present invention, the following technical solutions are adopted in the present invention:

[0006] A manufacturing process of a carbon fiber grid antenna surface includes the following steps:

[0007] 1) Mold positioning: Process positioning lines at the grid positions in the carbon fiber grid antenna surface on the curved surface of the parabolic mold;

[0008] 2) Silicone strip pasting: Bond silicone strips of corresponding sizes on the curved surface of the parabolic mold according to the positioning lines. The silicone strips are all arranged in the normal direction of the curved surface of the parabolic mold, and a blanking gap is formed between adjacent silicone strips;

[0009] 3) Carbon fiber strip production: After laying carbon fiber cloth crosswise, place it on a material pressing machine to compact it and remove the air in the middle. The computer cutting machine cuts the compacted carbon fiber material into carbon fiber strips, and the width of the carbon fiber strips is the same as the width of the cutting gap.

[0010] 4) Carbon fiber layer paving: Place the cut carbon fiber strips in the cutting gap in sequence, and lay the corresponding number of layers according to the product thickness to form a carbon fiber layer. The height of the carbon fiber layer is the same as that of the silicone strip.

[0011] 5) Silicone plate covering: Cover the top of the carbon fiber layer and the silicone strip with a silicone plate.

[0012] Preferably, in the carbon fiber strip production step, the carbon fiber cloth is laid in a multi-angle cross-laying scheme. The laying angles of the carbon fiber cloth include one or more of 0°, 15°, 45°, 60° and 90°, and the angle difference between adjacent layers of the carbon fiber cloth is 15°, 30° or 45°.

[0013] Preferably, in the carbon fiber layer paving step, the carbon fiber strips are alternately paved in the warp and weft directions, and the joints of the carbon fiber strips are staggered in sequence.

[0014] Preferably, in the carbon fiber layer paving step, for each layer of carbon fiber strips paved, a roller tool with a corresponding width is used to compact the adjacent carbon fiber strips and press out the air inside.

[0015] Preferably, in the silicone plate covering step, the silicone plate adopts an integral structure or a strip splicing structure.

[0016] Preferably, it further includes the following steps:

[0017] 6) Air tightness inspection: According to the autoclave process, encapsulate the carbon fiber product with an isolation film, breather felt and vacuum bag, and inspect its air tightness.

[0018] 7) Curing and forming: Place the mold and the product in a high-temperature and high-pressure environment for forming.

[0019] 8) Demolding: After the mold cools to the demolding temperature, demold the product from the mold, remove the silicone plate and silicone strip from the product, and clean the burrs of the product.

[0020] Preferably, in the curing and forming step, the pressure range of the high-temperature and high-pressure environment is 0.4 MPA to 1.0 MPA, and the temperature range is 80°C to 135°C.

[0021] Preferably, in the curing and forming step, the temperature is raised from room temperature to 80°C at a heating rate of 1 to 2°C / min, and at the same time the pressure is raised to 0.4 MPA at a pressure increasing rate of 0.01 MPA to 0.02 MPA / min. After maintaining for 65 minutes at 80°C and 0.4 MPA, the temperature is then raised to 135°C at a heating rate of 0.5 to 1°C / min, and at the same time the pressure is further raised to 1.0 MPA at a pressure increasing rate of 0.01 MPA to 0.02 MPA / min. After maintaining for 160 to 190 minutes at 135°C and 1.0 MPA, the pressure is released and the temperature is naturally decreased to below 60°C for demolding.

[0022] A carbon fiber grid antenna surface is made by using the carbon fiber grid antenna surface manufacturing process as described above.

[0023] The carbon fiber grid antenna surface manufacturing process and its product of the present invention have the following beneficial effects:

[0024] 1) Since the silicone strips at the grid are placed along the normal direction of the mold surface, and the silicone strips can be processed into right angles, the grids of the formed product are consistent with the design, which maximally guarantees the performance and usage requirements of the product.

[0025] 2) High-temperature resistant silicone is used as the grid filling material, and a silicone plate is also covered on the back of the carbon fiber. Under the pressure during the forming process, the silicone material has an additional pressure on the carbon fiber part, which will improve the density of the carbon fiber reflector panel, improve the product strength, and the front and back surfaces of the product are smooth. Its front surface is the mold and its back surface is the silicone sheet, which improves the appearance quality of the product.

[0026] 3) The product is formed in one step and does not require secondary machining, reducing the occupancy of the mold and shortening the production cycle of the product.

[0027] 4) In the new process, outside the mold surface, all flexible materials are used as the structural parts of the product. It is convenient to operate. During the forming process, additional acting forces can act on each surface of the carbon fiber, improving the product quality and also avoiding the damage of the mechanical force to the fiber layer in the mechanical processing method. Description of the Drawings

[0028] Figure 1 It is a schematic structural diagram of a carbon fiber grid antenna panel;

[0029] Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of a grid structure formed by a traditional processing method;

[0030] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of the silicone strip layout in the present invention;

[0031] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of the carbon fiber layer layout in the present invention;

[0032] Figure 5 Schematic diagram of the 15° and 45° cross-laying scheme in the present invention;

[0033] Figure 6 Schematic diagram of the 30° and 60° cross-laying scheme in the present invention;

[0034] Figure 7 Schematic diagram of the 0° and 45° cross-laying scheme in the present invention;

[0035] Figure 8 Schematic diagram of the carbon fiber layer structure in the present invention.

[0036] In the figure, 1 - parabolic mold, 2 - silicone strip, 3 - blanking gap, 4 - carbon fiber layer, 401 - carbon fiber strip, 5 - silicone plate, 6 - carbon fiber grid antenna surface, 601 - grid, 602 - flanging. Detailed implementation manner

[0037] In the description of the present invention, it should be understood that the orientation or positional relationship indicated by the terms "center", "upper", "lower", "front", "rear", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inner", "outer", etc. is based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings, and is only for the convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description, rather than indicating or implying that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and thus cannot be understood as a limitation to the present invention. The terms "first" and "second" are only used for descriptive purposes and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the quantity of the indicated technical features. Thus, the features defined with "first" and "second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of such features. In the description of the present invention, unless otherwise specified, the meaning of "plurality" is two or more.

[0038] As Figure 3 and Figure 8 shown, the manufacturing process of the carbon fiber grid antenna surface includes the following steps:

[0039] 1) Mold positioning: Process the positioning lines at the positions of the grids 601 in the carbon fiber grid antenna surface 6 on the curved surface of the parabolic mold 1; specifically, for mold design, mark the hole positions of the grids on the curved surface of the mold as the paste positioning of the subsequent silicone spacer strips, and after each product is formed, clean the mold thoroughly.

[0040] 2) Silicone strip pasting: Bond the silicone strip 2 of the corresponding size to the curved surface of the parabolic mold 1 according to the positioning line. The silicone strips 2 are all arranged in the normal direction of the curved surface of the parabolic mold 1, and a blanking gap 3 is formed between adjacent silicone strips 2. Specifically, a silicone material with high temperature resistance and high elasticity is selected as the forming component of the cell. At the mold positioning position, cut the silicone strip of the corresponding length, bond the silicone strip according to the positioning position. The silicone strip is used as a flexible mold insert and serves as the cell part during carbon fiber layup to separate the carbon fiber material.

[0041] 3) Carbon fiber strip production: After the carbon fiber cloth is cross-laid, place it on a press to compact it and remove the air in the middle. The computer cutting machine cuts the compacted carbon fiber material into carbon fiber strips 401, and the width of the carbon fiber strips 401 is the same as the width dimension of the blanking gap 3.

[0042] In this embodiment, the carbon fiber cloth is laid using a multi-angle cross-laying scheme. The laying angles of the carbon fiber cloth include one or more of 0°, 15°, 45°, 60°, and 90°. The angle difference between adjacent layers of the carbon fiber cloth is 15°, 30°, or 45°. Specifically, at the position of the gap separated by the silicone spacer, cut the carbon fiber strip with the width of the gap through a computer numerical control cutting machine, stack it to 1 mm, compact the carbon fiber strip through a press, and then lay the compacted carbon fiber strip into the gap of the silicone spacer and compact it with the mold.

[0043] During actual operation, it is preferably to cross-fold the carbon fiber cloth at 45 degrees and place it on a press to compact it, so that the structure of the two layers of carbon fiber materials is dense, remove the air in the middle, which is convenient for laying operation and also beneficial to improving the quality of the product. The computer cutting machine cuts the compacted carbon fiber material into carbon fiber strips with the width of the grid carbon fiber part.

[0044] 4) Carbon fiber layer laying: Place the cut carbon fiber strips 401 in the blanking gap 3 in sequence, and lay the corresponding number of layers according to the product thickness to form a carbon fiber layer 4. The height of the carbon fiber layer 4 is the same as that of the silicone strip 2. Specifically, the carbon fiber strips are alternately laid in the process direction and the weft direction of the process. The connections of the fiber strips are staggered in sequence and cannot overlap. The carbon fiber strips cannot be stacked up and down either, so as to obtain the maximum product strength and ensure that the appearance of the back of the product is equal to the thickness of the product.

[0045] During actual operation, place the cut carbon fiber strips in the gap separated by the silicone spacer in sequence, and lay multiple layers according to the product thickness. During the multi-layer laying process, pay attention to staggering the connections of the carbon fiber strips and do not place the connections at the same position to avoid weakening the structural strength at the same position. In addition, during the carbon fiber layer laying step, for each layer of carbon fiber strip 401 laid, use a roller tool with the corresponding width to compact the adjacent carbon fiber strips 401 and press out the air inside.

[0046] 5) Silicone plate covering: Cover the silicone plate 5 on the top of the carbon fiber layer 4 and the silicone strip 2. Specifically, after laying the carbon fiber strips to the required number of layers for the thickness, cover the silicone plate on the upper surface. The silicone plate can be cut into strips to avoid wrinkles.

[0047] It should be noted that steps 1 to 5 are the core steps. Steps 6 to 8 can adopt the following steps or existing technologies.

[0048] 6) Air tightness inspection: According to the autoclave process, encapsulate the carbon fiber product with an isolation film, a breather felt, and a vacuum bag, and inspect its air tightness.

[0049] 7) Curing and forming: Place the mold and the product in a high-temperature and high-pressure environment for forming.

[0050] 8) Demolding: After the mold cools to the demolding temperature, demold the product from the mold, remove the silicone plate 5 and the silicone strip 2 from the product, and clean the burrs of the product for subsequent assembly and painting processes.

[0051] Specifically, in the curing and forming step, the pressure range of the high-temperature and high-pressure environment is 0.4 MPA to 1.0 MPA, and the temperature range is 80 °C to 135 °C. In actual operation, the following process can be referred to: Start from room temperature and increase the temperature at a rate of 1 to 2 °C / min to 80 °C, and at the same time increase the pressure at a rate of 0.01 MPA to 0.02 MPA / min to 0.4 MPA. After maintaining for 65 minutes at 80 °C and 0.4 MPA, then increase the temperature at a rate of 0.5 to 1 °C / min to 135 °C, and at the same time increase the pressure at a rate of 0.01 MPA to 0.02 MPA / min to 1.0 MPA. After maintaining for 160 to 190 minutes at 135 °C and 1.0 MPA, release the pressure and naturally cool down to below 60 °C for demolding.

[0052] In this embodiment, a hot forming press is used to process the mold. Its advantages are as follows: The press applies a comprehensive force to the entire sealing surface, ensuring the sealing effect; The heating speed of the press is faster and can closely approximate the heating speed requirements in the process; It can meet the process requirements of higher pressurization values in the cavity; Since the process design requires multiple segmented heating and pressurization actions, the manufacturing cost of the forming process can be effectively reduced. It should also be noted that there will be certain burrs at the edges after the product is formed, and the blank parts need to be secondary processed. The secondary processing mainly focuses on the edges and corners. Because the secondary processing will damage the continuity of local fibers, and the processing will generate a certain amount of heat, damaging the resin performance. Poor processing will also pull the fibers and pull out the entire fiber. To minimize the damage to the product caused by the secondary processing, we take the following optimization measures: When processing, a customized carbon fiber milling cutter is selected to minimize wire drawing and the risk of damaging the structure of the unprocessed parts; The processing uses processing parameters of high rotational speed and low cutting amount to avoid generating heat and damaging the resin strength.

[0053] Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention and are not intended to limit them. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that they can still modify the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments, or perform equivalent replacements for some of the technical features. These modifications or replacements do not cause the essence of the corresponding technical solutions to deviate from the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the various embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. A manufacturing process for a carbon fiber grid antenna surface, characterized in that, It includes the following steps: 1) Mold positioning: Process the positioning lines at the positions of the grids (601) in the carbon fiber grid antenna surface (6) on the curved surface of the parabolic mold (1). 2) Silicone strip pasting: Bond the silicone strips (2) of corresponding sizes on the curved surface of the parabolic mold (1) according to the positioning lines. The silicone strips (2) are all arranged in the normal direction of the curved surface of the parabolic mold (1), and a blanking gap (3) is formed between adjacent silicone strips (2). 3) Carbon fiber strip production: After the carbon fiber cloth is cross-laid, it is placed on a pressing machine to be compacted and the air in the middle is removed. The computer blanking machine cuts the compacted carbon fiber material into carbon fiber strips (401). The width of the carbon fiber strips (401) is the same as the width dimension of the blanking gap (3). 4) Carbon fiber layer paving: Place the cut carbon fiber strips (401) in the blanking gap (3) in sequence, and lay the corresponding number of layers according to the product thickness to form a carbon fiber layer (4). The height of the carbon fiber layer (4) is the same as that of the silicone strip (2). 5) Silicone plate covering: Cover the top of the carbon fiber layer (4) and the silicone strip (2) with a silicone plate (5). In the step of carbon fiber strip production, the carbon fiber cloth is laid using a multi-angle cross-laying scheme. The laying angles of the carbon fiber cloth include one or more of 0°, 15°, 45°, 60°, and 90°. The angle difference between adjacent layers of the carbon fiber cloth is 15°, 30°, or 45°. In the step of carbon fiber layer paving, the carbon fiber strips (401) are alternately paved in the warp and weft directions, and the joints of the carbon fiber strips (401) are staggered in sequence. In the step of carbon fiber layer paving, for each layer of carbon fiber strips (401) paved, a roller tool with a corresponding width is used to compact the adjacent carbon fiber strips (401) and press out the air inside them.

2. The manufacturing process of the carbon fiber grid antenna surface according to claim 1, characterized in that, In the step of silicone plate covering, the silicone plate (5) adopts an integral structure or a strip splicing structure.

3. The manufacturing process of the carbon fiber grid antenna surface according to claim 1, characterized in that, It also includes the following steps: 6) Air tightness inspection: According to the autoclave process, encapsulate the carbon fiber product with an isolation film, a breather felt, and a vacuum bag, and inspect its air tightness. 7) Curing and forming: Place the mold and the product in a high-temperature and high-pressure environment for forming. 8) Demolding: After the mold cools to the demolding temperature, demold the product from the mold, remove the silicone plate (5) and the silicone strip (2) from the product, and clean the burrs of the product.

4. The manufacturing process of the carbon fiber grid antenna surface according to claim 3, characterized in that, In the step of curing and forming, the pressure range of the high-temperature and high-pressure environment is 0.4 MPA to 1.0 MPA, and the temperature range is 80°C to 135°C.

5. The manufacturing process of the carbon fiber grid antenna surface according to claim 4, characterized in that, In the step of curing and forming, starting from room temperature, heat up to 80°C at a heating rate of 1 to 2°C / min, and at the same time increase the pressure to 0.4 MPA at a pressure increase rate of 0.01 MPA to 0.02 MPA / min. After maintaining for 65 minutes at 80°C and 0.4 MPA, then heat up to 135°C at a heating rate of 0.5 to 1°C / min, and at the same time increase the pressure to 1.0 MPA at a pressure increase rate of 0.01 MPA to 0.02 MPA / min. After maintaining for 160 to 190 minutes at 135°C and 1.0 MPA, release the pressure and cool naturally to below 60°C of the mold for demolding.

6. A carbon fiber grid antenna surface, characterized in that, It is made by using the manufacturing process of the carbon fiber grid antenna surface described in any one of claims 1 to 5.

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