Rapid prototyping process of sandwich structure antenna reflector and antenna reflector

Abstract

The application provides a kind of sandwich structure antenna reflector rapid forming process and antenna reflector, comprising: the front skin preform of front skin dry cloth sprayed with setting agent is made, wherein the front skin is integrally preformed with conductive felt;The rear skin preform of rear skin dry cloth sprayed with setting agent is made, wherein the rear skin is integrally preformed with foam;The front skin preform is placed in the lower die of the die, and the quick curing resin is sprayed, and then the rear skin preform is placed above it, and the quick curing resin is sprayed, and then the mold is heated and pressurized to quickly cure.The front skin dry cloth and the rear skin dry cloth are both used liquid quick curing resin to spray the fiber woven dry cloth.The application uses liquid quick curing resin to spray the fiber woven dry cloth and conductive felt, replaces the traditional prepreg laying and spraying metallization layer process, and completes the forming and functionalization of sandwich structure at one time, so that the production efficiency is greatly improved, and the raw material cost is significantly reduced.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The application belongs to the technical field of satellite communication antenna composite material part forming, and particularly relates to a rapid forming process of a sandwich structure antenna reflector and the antenna reflector. BACKGROUND

[0002] Antennas are mainly divided into linear antennas and surface antennas according to structural forms, and the reflector is an important structural part of the surface antenna, and the shape thereof is usually a curved surface or a plane, which plays a role in reflecting and converging in the process of electromagnetic wave emission or reception, so as to increase signal strength and improve the effect of transmission and reception.

[0003] The reflector needs to meet basic requirements such as electrical conductivity, strength and rigidity, and compared with traditional metal reflectors, lightweight, high-strength and corrosion-resistant carbon fiber sandwich structure reflectors have been widely used in the fields of aviation, aerospace, navigation and weapon industry. The sandwich structure reflector is mainly composed of a metallized layer, a front skin, a core and a rear skin, and the skin and the core are bonded by a special adhesive film, and the traditional molding process thereof is as follows:

[0004] First, the mold is processed in a special paint spraying room, the metallized layer is sprayed on the surface of the mold, then the mold is transported to a layering workshop, then the carbon fiber prepreg is used to lay and paste the front skin on the surface of the metallized layer, then the core is assembled by using the adhesive film, then the rear skin is laid and pasted on the core, and after the mold is closed, the whole is sent into a hot press tank for pressure curing, after the processes of temperature rising, temperature keeping and temperature falling, the product is obtained by demolding.

[0005] However, the traditional molding process of the above-mentioned sandwich structure reflector has a long forming process cycle of about 6-8 hours, high energy consumption, and needs to be transported multiple times, especially when mass production is faced, the process will become the main factor restricting the production efficiency. SUMMARY

[0006] The application aims to provide a rapid forming process of a sandwich structure antenna reflector and the antenna reflector, so as to overcome the above technical defects.

[0007] To solve the above technical problems, the application provides a rapid forming process of a sandwich structure antenna reflector, which comprises:

[0008] Preparation of the front skin, the front skin at least comprising a front skin dry cloth on which a quick curing resin is sprayed;

[0009] Preparation of the rear skin, the rear skin at least comprising a rear skin dry cloth on which a quick curing resin is sprayed;

[0010] Placing the front skin and the rear skin into a forming mold and closing and curing the mold;

[0011] Forming a sandwich structure antenna reflector block;

[0012] The sandwich structure antenna reflector is assembled into a sandwich structure antenna reflector.

[0013] Further, the front skin is pre-prepared, and the preparation steps include:

[0014] Laying the conductive felt on the shaping mold;

[0015] After uniformly spraying the shaping agent on the surface of the conductive felt, the front skin dry cloth is stacked and a small amount of shaping agent is sprayed again;

[0016] Starting the shaping mold, and hot-pressing the conductive felt and the front skin dry cloth into the front skin.

[0017] Further, the fiber surface of the conductive felt is plated with metal, and the unit area per square resistance is 1-2Ω.

[0018] Further, the rear skin is pre-prepared, and the preparation steps include:

[0019] Laying the foam on the shaping mold;

[0020] Stacking the rear skin dry cloth on the surface of the foam and uniformly spraying the shaping agent;

[0021] Starting the shaping mold, and hot-pressing the foam and the rear skin dry cloth into the rear skin.

[0022] Further, the front skin and the rear skin are put into a molding machine, and the mold is closed for curing, and the specific steps include:

[0023] Taking the pre-prepared front skin and putting it into the lower mold of the forming mold;

[0024] Uniformly spraying the quick-curing resin on the surface of the front skin dry cloth;

[0025] Taking the pre-prepared rear skin and stacking it on the front skin, and the foam is clamped between the front skin dry cloth and the rear skin dry cloth;

[0026] Uniformly spraying the quick-curing resin on the surface of the rear skin dry cloth;

[0027] Closing the mold for curing.

[0028] Further, the foam adopts a high-temperature-resistant heat-deformable foam, and the heat-deformation temperature of the foam is higher than the curing temperature of the quick-curing resin by more than 30℃, and the foam does not crush under a 10% deformation compression.

[0029] The application also provides an antenna reflector, which includes a rear skin dry cloth, a foam, a front skin dry cloth and a conductive felt which are sequentially laminated and formed, wherein the rear skin dry cloth and the foam are laminated and formed into a rear skin, the front skin dry cloth and the conductive felt are laminated and formed into a front skin, and the front skin dry cloth and the rear skin dry cloth are uniformly sprayed with quick-curing resin.

[0030] The beneficial effects of the present application are as follows:

[0031] (1) The use of liquid quick-curing resin impregnation skin dry cloth replaces the traditional prepreg laying, and the use of conductive felt replaces the traditional metalized layer spraying process, and the molding and functionalization of the sandwich structure are completed at one time, greatly improving the production efficiency and significantly reducing the raw material cost.

[0032] (2) The sandwich structure is divided into a conductive felt + front skin dry cloth combination and a foam + rear skin dry cloth combination, and both parts can be manufactured in batches in advance for storage, which can fully meet the production needs of large quantities of sandwich structure reflective surfaces.

[0033] (3) The handling of the conductive felt + front skin dry cloth and the foam + rear skin dry cloth, the spraying of the quick-curing resin, the opening and closing of the mold, and the curing process can all be uniformly controlled by the program, greatly improving the degree of automation of the production line and the stability of the quality.

[0034] In order to make the above content of the present application more obvious and easy to understand, the following preferred embodiments are described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0035] Figure 1 is a structural schematic diagram of the front skin.

[0036] Figure 2 is a structural schematic diagram of the rear skin.

[0037] Figure 3 is a structural schematic diagram of the molding mold.

[0038] Explanation of reference signs:

[0039] 100. conductive felt;

[0040] 200. front skin dry cloth;

[0041] 300. foam;

[0042] 400. rear skin dry cloth;

[0043] 500. lower mold of molding mold;

[0044] 600. upper mold of molding mold;

[0045] 700. sandwich structure antenna reflective surface block. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0046] The following describes the embodiments of the present application by specific specific embodiments, and those skilled in the art can easily understand other advantages and effects of the present application from the content disclosed in the specification.

[0047] It should be noted that in the present application, the up, down, left and right in the figures are considered as the up, down, left and right of the rapid prototyping process of the sandwich antenna reflector described in the specification.

[0048] Reference will now be made to the drawings to describe the exemplary embodiments of the present application in detail. The present application may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and fully convey the scope of the application to those skilled in the art. The terminology used in the description presented herein is not intended to be interpreted in any limited or restrictive manner simply because it is being used in conjunction with a detailed description of particular embodiments. In addition, embodiments of a given term will be provided with similar delineations of embodiments of other terms to avoid obscuring the present application. In the drawings, like numerals refer to like elements throughout.

[0049] Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this application belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

[0050] The present embodiment relates to a rapid prototyping process of a sandwich antenna reflector, comprising:

[0051] preparing a front skin, the front skin comprising at least a front skin dry cloth 200 coated with a quick-curing resin by showering;

[0052] preparing a rear skin, the rear skin comprising at least a rear skin dry cloth 400 coated with a quick-curing resin by showering;

[0053] putting the front skin and the rear skin into a molding machine and closing the mold for curing;

[0054] forming a sandwich antenna reflector block 700;

[0055] assembling the sandwich antenna reflector block 700 into a sandwich antenna reflector.

[0056] In the conventional molding process of a sandwich antenna reflector, the mold is first processed in a special paint spraying room, a metalized layer is sprayed on the surface of the mold, the mold is then transported to a layering workshop, a carbon fiber prepreg is used to lay and paste a front skin on the surface of the metalized layer, a core is assembled using an adhesive film, and a rear skin is laid and pasted on the core.

[0057] In the process of making a sandwich antenna reflector, the pre-prepared front skin and rear skin coated with a quick-curing resin by showering are used, and the hot-pressing molding is performed in a molding machine. Therefore, the adhesive film used in the conventional process is no longer needed, the entire manufacturing process is shortened to about 30 minutes, which is much shorter than the 6-8 hours of the conventional process, thereby reducing the time cost. The saved time can be used to increase the production and improve the production efficiency.

[0058] Regarding the pre-made front skin, the manufacturing steps include:

[0059] Laying the conductive felt 100 on the shaping mold;

[0060] After evenly spraying the shaping agent on the surface of the conductive felt 100, the front skin dry cloth 200 is stacked and then a small amount of shaping agent is sprayed again. The amount of shaping agent sprayed is appropriately adjusted according to the thickness of the fabric to ensure that the fabric is fully shaped and does not appear to be loose.

[0061] Starting the shaping mold, the conductive felt 100 and the front skin dry cloth 200 are hot-pressed into the front skin.

[0062] It should be noted that the front skin dry cloth 200 selected is a carbon fiber woven dry cloth. When the conductive felt 100 is placed on the bottom layer, the carbon fiber woven dry cloth is stacked on the conductive felt 100 to the thickness of the front skin. That is, in the present embodiment, please refer to Figure 1 , the front skin is a stacked structure of the conductive felt 100 and the front skin dry cloth 200.

[0063] The metalized layer has a large coefficient of thermal expansion, and in extremely cold or cold places, it cannot ensure the normal operation of the antenna, especially in cold weather. In the present application, the conductive felt 100 is used to replace the sprayed metalized layer. The conductive felt 100 has strong adaptability and can be applied to various environments and is less affected by changes in environmental temperature. Moreover, the reflectivity of the conductive felt 100 can reach 95%, which improves the reflection efficiency of the antenna.

[0064] For the selection of the conductive felt 100, the present embodiment uses a conductive felt 100 with a metal-plated fiber surface, such as a nickel-plated fiber surface. The conductive felt 100 has a unit area resistance of 1-2 Ω per square to improve the conductivity, and the thickness of the conductive felt 100 is 0.1-0.2 mm.

[0065] Regarding the pre-made rear skin, the manufacturing steps include:

[0066] Laying the foam 300 on the shaping mold;

[0067] After stacking the rear skin dry cloth 400 on the upper surface of the foam 300, the shaping agent is evenly sprayed. The amount of shaping agent sprayed is appropriately adjusted according to the thickness of the fabric to ensure that the fabric is fully shaped and does not appear to be loose.

[0068] Starting the shaping mold, the foam 300 and the rear skin dry cloth 400 are hot-pressed into the rear skin.

[0069] It should be noted that the rear skin dry cloth 400 also selected is a carbon fiber woven dry cloth. When the foam 300 is placed on the bottom layer, the carbon fiber woven dry cloth is stacked on the foam 300 to the thickness of the rear skin. That is, in the present embodiment, please refer to Figure 2, the rear skin refers to the laminated structure of the foam 300 and the rear skin dry cloth 400.

[0070] Whether it is hot pressing and shaping of the front skin or the rear skin, the hot pressing temperature and time are determined according to the shaping agent, wherein the shaping agent is used to fix the shape.

[0071] The production of the front skin and the rear skin can be carried out in batches in advance for storage, which can fully meet the production needs of large quantities of sandwich structure antenna reflectors.

[0072] Place the front and rear skins into the molding machine, close the mold and solidify. Figure 3 , the specific steps include:

[0073] Take the prefabricated front skin and place it into the lower mold 500 of the forming mold;

[0074] Evenly coating the surface of the front skin dry cloth 200 with a quick-curing resin;

[0075] Take the pre-made rear skin and stack it on the front skin, and sandwich the foam 300 between the front skin dry cloth 200 and the rear skin dry cloth 400;

[0076] Evenly coat the surface of the rear skin dry cloth 400 with a quick-curing resin;

[0077] Close the mold and cure, keep warm at 120℃ for about 5 minutes, or keep warm at 100℃ for about 10 minutes;

[0078] The mold is opened and the sandwich structure antenna reflector surface product is taken out.

[0079] It is worth mentioning that a pre-designed path is provided on the surface of the front skin dry cloth 200 and the surface of the rear skin dry cloth 400, and the fast-curing resin is evenly applied along the designed path. In other words, both the front skin dry cloth 200 and the rear skin dry cloth 400 use liquid fast-curing resin impregnated fiber woven dry cloth.

[0080] That is to say, the traditional prepreg laying is replaced by impregnating fiber woven dry cloth with liquid fast-curing resin, and the sprayed metallized layer is replaced by the conductive felt 100. The present invention completes the forming and functionalization of the sandwich structure by one-time curing, which greatly improves the production efficiency and significantly reduces the cost of raw materials.

[0081] Fast-curing resins are resins with AB components or above, which are easy to store and are required to be cured within 5 minutes at 120°C, or within 10 minutes at 100°C.

[0082] Compared with the traditional antenna reflector manufacturing process, the application no longer uses a metal layer, carbon fiber prepreg, removes the adhesive film bonding step, no longer uses a hot press tank for pressure curing, and the front skin and the rear skin are not manufactured at present, but are pre-manufactured, which shortens the cycle of the entire process flow and is more suitable for mass production.

[0083] The specific forming process of the sandwich structure antenna reflector block 700 is as follows:

[0084] The conductive felt 100, the carbon fiber woven dry cloth, and the foam 300 are cut into the required number and shape of the reflector using a numerical control cutting machine;

[0085] The conductive felt 100 is placed on the bottom layer, a small amount of sizing agent is uniformly sprayed on the surface of the conductive felt 100, then the carbon fiber woven dry cloth is layered on the conductive felt 100 to the thickness of the front skin and a small amount of sizing agent is sprayed again, and hot pressing is performed for setting, with a hot pressing temperature of 80°C for 15 minutes;

[0086] After the carbon fiber woven dry cloth is layered on the surface of the foam 300 to the thickness of the rear skin, a small amount of sizing agent is uniformly sprayed, hot pressing is performed for setting, with a hot pressing temperature of 80°C for 15 minutes;

[0087] The combination of the conductive felt 100 and the front skin dry cloth 200 is placed in the lower mold cavity in a fixed position, and the front skin dry cloth 200 is uniformly sprayed with quick-curing resin along the designed path on the surface;

[0088] The combination of the foam 300 and the rear skin dry cloth 400 is placed on the front skin, and the rear skin dry cloth is uniformly sprayed with quick-curing resin along the designed path on the surface;

[0089] The mold is closed, and the temperature is kept at 100°C for about 10 minutes;

[0090] As shown in Figure 3 , the sandwich structure antenna reflector block is taken out after the mold is opened.

[0091] The upper and lower molds are respectively connected and fixed with the upper and lower tables of the mold pressing machine, can perform opening and closing mold actions with the tables, and are designed with a glue overflow area and two sealing grooves on the lower mold. The glue overflow area helps to exhaust the air in the dry cloth layer, and the sealing grooves are used to prevent the liquid resin from overflowing from the side when the mold is closed, resulting in a lack of glue on the surface.

[0092] Regarding the selection of the foam 300, the foam 300 uses a high-temperature-resistant foam that can be hot-deformed, and the foam hot-deformation temperature is higher than the curing temperature of the quick-curing resin by more than 30°C, and does not crush under a 10% deformation compression.

[0093] The application also protects an antenna reflector, comprising a back skin dry cloth 400, a foam 300, a front skin dry cloth 200 and a conductive felt 100 which are sequentially laminated, wherein the back skin dry cloth 400 and the foam 300 form a back skin after lamination, the front skin dry cloth 200 and the conductive felt 100 form a front skin after lamination, and the front skin dry cloth 200 and the back skin dry cloth 400 are respectively uniformly sprayed with a quick curing resin.

[0094] Those skilled in the art can understand that the above-mentioned embodiments are specific examples for implementing the application, and in actual applications, various changes can be made in form and details without departing from the spirit and scope of the application.

Claims

1. A rapid prototyping process for a sandwich structure antenna reflector, characterized in that: include: Pre-produce the front skin, the production steps include: Laying the conductive felt (100) on the shaping mold; After uniformly spraying a setting agent on the surface of the conductive felt (100), a front skin dry cloth (200) is stacked thereon and a small amount of setting agent is sprayed again; Starting the shaping die to hot-press the conductive felt (100) and the front skin dry cloth (200) into the front skin; Pre-production of the back skin, the production steps include: Laying foam (300) on the shaping mold; After stacking the rear skin dry cloth (400) on the surface of the foam (300), spray the setting agent evenly; Starting the shaping mold to hot-press the foam (300) and the rear skin dry cloth (400) into the rear skin; The front skin and the rear skin are placed in a molding machine, molded and cured. The specific steps include: Taking the prefabricated front skin and placing it into the lower mold (500) of the forming mold; Evenly coating the surface of the front skin dry cloth (200) with a quick-curing resin; The prefabricated rear skin is stacked on the front skin, and the foam (300) is sandwiched between the front skin dry cloth (200) and the rear skin dry cloth (400); Evenly coating the surface of the rear skin dry cloth (400) with a quick-curing resin; Close the mold and cure, keep warm at 120℃ for 5 minutes, or keep warm at 100℃ for 10 minutes; Forming sandwich structure antenna reflector surface blocks (700); The sandwich structure antenna reflector surface blocks (700) are assembled to form a sandwich structure antenna reflector surface.

2. The rapid prototyping process for the sandwich structure antenna reflector according to claim 1, characterized in that: The foam (300) is a high-temperature resistant and heat-compressible foam, and the foam heat deformation temperature is higher than the curing temperature of the fast-curing resin by more than 30° C., and no crushing phenomenon occurs under a deformation compression amount of 10%.

3. An antenna reflector manufactured by the rapid prototyping process according to any one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that: The invention comprises a rear skin dry cloth (400), foam (300), a front skin dry cloth (200) and a conductive felt (100) which are sequentially laminated and formed, wherein the rear skin dry cloth (400) and the foam (300) form a rear skin after being laminated and formed, and the front skin dry cloth (200) and the conductive felt (100) form a front skin after being laminated and formed, and the front skin dry cloth (200) and the rear skin dry cloth (400) are respectively uniformly coated with a fast-curing resin.

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