Impact Sensing Laminate for Composite Aircraft Inspection
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Solution Overview
Problem
In manufacturing processes, such as those for aircraft, the inefficiency of repeated inspections for impact damage hampers productivity while maintaining precision, especially with composite materials where visual damage assessment is challenging.
Innovation Solution
An impact sensing laminate with an absorption layer and multiple pressure-sensitive layers that attenuate and detect impact forces, allowing for precise identification of affected areas through color changes, enabling targeted inspections and reducing the need for comprehensive checks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If repeated inspections are conducted to ensure high safety and detect impact damage, then inspection precision is improved, but inspection efficiency and productivity deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The impact sensing laminate is applied to the aircraft surface before delivery or maintenance, continuously monitoring for impact forces. This preliminary detection eliminates the need for repeated post-assembly inspections, as the laminate has already detected and recorded any impact events that occurred during manufacturing or operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual visual inspection and complex non-destructive testing equipment with a simple pressure-sensitive laminate that passively detects impact forces through color changes. This substitution of mechanical/complex inspection systems with a passive sensing material dramatically improves efficiency while maintaining detection capability.
2Reliability
If comprehensive inspections are conducted across the entire aircraft surface, then detection coverage is improved, but inspection time and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The aircraft surface is divided into multiple inspection zones, each covered by a separate impact sensing laminate. This segmentation allows inspectors to focus only on zones where the laminate indicates impact damage, rather than examining the entire aircraft surface, thereby reducing inspection time while maintaining comprehensive coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The pressure-sensitive laminate contains indicators that change color when subjected to impact forces exceeding a threshold. This visual color change provides immediate, unambiguous detection of impact locations, allowing for rapid assessment of which areas require detailed inspection, thus reducing overall inspection time while ensuring complete detection coverage.
3Ease of operation
If visual inspection methods are used for composite materials, then inspection simplicity is improved, but detection accuracy deteriorates due to difficulty in assessing damage
Solution Approach 1:
The impact sensing laminate acts as an intermediary between the impact event and the human inspector. Instead of directly visually inspecting complex composite materials for subtle damage signs, the laminate translates impact forces into visible color changes, providing clear, unambiguous information that is easy to interpret while accurately reflecting the actual damage situation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution enhances inspection efficiency by allowing for precise localization of impact damage, reducing unnecessary inspections, and improving the accuracy of damage assessment on complex materials like composite aircraft wings.
Implementation Method 1
Each of the supporting members has elasticity
Implementation Method 2
a layer which includes a pressure-sensitive layer and an impact absorption layer
Data Source
Figure 1A~1B
Figure 2~3
Figure 4
AI summary
An impact sensing laminate 2 has a first surface 211 on which an impact force acts; a second surface 222 brought in contact with a protection object OBJ; an impact absorption layer 21 and a first pressure-sensitive layer 22. When a direction heading for the second surface from the first surface is defined as a first direction, the first pressure-sensitive layer is in the first direction from the impact absorption layer. The first pressure-sensitive layer is a layer of sensing a first impact force as the impact force to have been attenuated by the impact absorption layer.