Smart Tooling Mandrels
Better Than A Multi-piece Metal Mandrel
Traditional
Multi-piece Metal Mandrels
A variety of factors limits traditional mandrel solutions such as a multi-piece metal mandrel. Metal mandrels require the composite part to be made in two halves, the mandrels then have to be broken apart piece by piece, and finally the composite halves need to be rejoined to form the final composite, dramatically increasing labor costs.
Smart Tools
That Act As Mandrels During Cure
Because Smart Tools that act as Mandrels during cure are made from shape memory polymers, which are rigid during the layup process, composite materials can be layed up directly onto the mandrel. The mandrel remains rigid during cure to set the inside mold line (IML), but then becomes elastic during a free standing post cure, to be extracted in one piece from the cured composite.
Mandrels for Complex & Trapped Geometry Composites
Smart Tooling provides formable, reusable composite tooling solutions for manufacturing composite parts with complex geometries for the aerospace & defense industry. Smart Tools improve quality, reduce labor hours, decrease consumables, and increase throughput – essentially, Smart Tools enable the manufacturing of composite parts better, cheaper, and faster.
Watch the video above for a demonstration of Smart Tools that act as mandrels.
Features & Benefits:
- Reduced Labor Hours
- Improved Quality
- Higher Throughput
- Lower Consumable Cost
- Formable
- Reusable
- Low Force Extractions
- Enables Unitization
- Clean Process
Compatible With:
- Hand Layup
- Filament Winding
- Automated Fiber Placement (AFP)
- Resins Transfer Molding (RTM)
- Vacuum Assisted RTM (VARTM)
- Injection Molding
- Autoclave Cure
- Oven Cure
- Heated/Cooled Molds
- Heated Press
- Automation
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Learn more about Smart Tooling can ensure success of your composite part.