Time is money, and if you can cut production time from months to days, the savings makes your product more affordable to a wider range of customers.

The Propulsion Directorate of Phillips Laboratory at Edwards Air Force Base, CA, has developed two new processes for densifying carbon-carbon materials. One process incorporates plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), while the other involves a proprietary (soon to be patented) technique. The current process requires up to seven cycles, each requiring approximately one month. Using the new processes reduces this time from months to days with a corresponding decrease in cost. The advantage of both methods over conventional processing is that they are both one-step processes that obtain the same final density as current commercial methods. Cost savings are based on processing times of one-tenth (1/10) that of conventional methods.

Potential military and commercial uses of densified carbon-carbon include: automobile and aircraft brake pads, nose tips, inlet surfaces, exhaust surfaces, rocket nozzles, struts, trusses, shafts, and vessels. Carbon-carbon structures can withstand higher temperatures than most other materials, provide reduced radar cross-section, are stronger than steel, and in many configurations are lighter than aluminum. They can also be used in space structures as strong, stiff, lightweight structural materials and as thermal management devices such as radiators.

Rapid densification of carbon-carbon drastically cuts manufacturing time of all of these components with an order of magnitude cost savings to the Air Force. The potential uses in the commercial market should expand commensurably as the cost and production times are reduced!

For more information please contact:

Jeff Veselenak
(805) 275-6112; Fax: (805) 275-5086
e-mail: jeff_veselenak@ple.af.mil