Essentials of Composites Manufacturing

Course Quick Facts


Course Number/Course Dates

2 Days (Saturdays): Dates TBD for Spring 2024

Time
8:00am - 5:00pm

Cost
$6250: On Campus
$5625: On Campus-Trojan Family
$5625: On Campus-Edcor Clients
$5000: On Campus-Boeing employee


The Essentials of Composites Manufacturing program provides a high-level overview of manufacturing science and engineering for aerospace composite structures, focusing on prepreg and liquid molding processes, including hands-on laboratory demonstrations. Building upon the fundamentals of manufacturing composite materials, course participants will complete a multiple-choice quiz as a knowledge assessment, administered on the final day of the course. When the Essentials of Composite Manufacturing program and quiz have been successfully completed, participants will receive USC Continuing Education Units.

To begin learning the fundamentals of manufacturing composite materials, contact the USC Viterbi School of Engineering today. We can also provide more information concerning course benefits, details, fees, and more.

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What You Will Learn:

Essentials of Composites Manufacturing covers a number of topic areas, including:

Day 1: Prepreg Processing

  • Overview of composites manufacturing (basic processes, curing of thermoset resins, prepreg processing, autoclave/oven cure, cost/rate factors
  • Manufacturing defects (origins, effects, control, strategies)
  • Prepreg processing (hands-on material cutting and handling, layup, bagging, and oven cure)
  • Design of composite aerostructures (structural complexity, scale-up)
  • Post-processing (high-level discussion of inspection, machining, joining, repair, and testing)
  • Laminate testing demonstration (demolding, NDE, and tensile coupon testing)
  • Note: Laminates fabricated during lab 1 may not be fully cured by the end of the course. Hence, laminate quality testing (lab 2) may rely on previously-cured laminates (particularly if tensile tests are preferred, which require end tabs). Cured laminates.

Day 2: Liquid Molding (RTM and Vacuum Infusion)

  • Liquid molding of composites (closed-mold and open-mold variants, basic processing steps, cost/rate factors)
  • Manufacturing defects (origins, effects, control strategies)
  • RTM demonstration (preform preparation, layup, injection, and cure using instrumented mini-RTM mold)
  • Challenges with liquid molding
  • Vacuum infusion (preform preparation, layup, infusion, and cure on flat tool plate)
  • Note: The RTM lab will consist of a hands-off demonstration, since we only have one RTM system available, but will include in situ video demonstrating effects of process parameters on mold filling and air removal. The vacuum infusion lab will consist of two infusion set-ups (teams of 4 people max.).

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Published on October 4th, 2017

Last updated on November 27th, 2023