THE INFLUENCE OF MANUFACTURING ON THE DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE OF RESISTANCE WELDED THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITE SKIN/CORE STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS IS INVESTIGATED. MANUFACTURING RESULTS FOCUS ON THE CONSOLIDATION OF THERMOPLASTIC CORES AND THE RESISTANCE WELDING OF THE CORE TO THE FACE SHEETS USING DUAL POLYMER BONDING TECHNOLOGY. EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON WELDING GRAPHITE/PEEK THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES HAVE SHOWN THAT JOINT STRENGTH IS EXTREMELY SENSITIVE TO THE NON-ISOTHERMAL PROCESS HISTORY. PERFORMANCE RESULTS INCLUDE FLEXURAL TESTING OF STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS AND COUPON TESTS TO QUANTIFY DESIGN ALLOWABLES. A DESIGN METHODOLOGY IS DEMONSTRATED THAT PREDICTS THE PERFORMANCE OF THE SKIN/CORE STRUCTURE THAT COMBINES TRADITIONAL STRESS ANALYSIS WITH A NON-ISOTHERMAL PROCESS MODEL FOR JOINT STRENGTH ALLOWABLES.
