The US Navy requested that the Navy Center of Excellence for Composites Manufacturing Technology (CECMT) evaluate the feasibility of constructing fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) rudders for their Mine Counter Measures (MCM) ship because existing metal rudders are heavy, expensive to fabricate and have galvanic corrosion problems. The result of this project is the development of an effective low cost vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARM) process that can be used for numerous military and commercial applications. This paper details the rudder program highlights along with a discussion of the applicability of the process to composite manufacturing.
| Number of Pages : | 22 |
| Published : | 06/01/1997 |
