Interesting Short Repair Video

[jrandy]

This came up on Swaylocks to illustrate wetting out materials on plastic and then applying to the project like a decal.

1 minute 57 seconds and they fixed a hole in an airplane wing. I am attributing their speed to their choice of music and lack of voice-overs. Enjoy!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ps0uUuETlQ&feature=youtu.be&t=0

[Bean]

While a really nice outcome, I'm not completely sold on the reliance of butt-joints in the under-glass layer and core layer.  The outer layer on the other hand is dished nicely and will result in a strong tapered (scarf) joint. 

I would have dished out the entire repair area first then laid the under-glass into the existing structure followed by tapering the core material with the existing core, and then the outer layer.  While never perfect, in this way each layer is tapered into the existing structure, (no butt joints).

[PonoBill]

Underlayer, no, but the core layer joint doesn't matter much. the core isn't there for strength, it's for separation. It's common in building large laminate forms to have butt joints in the core. I don't know why they bothered with that microballoon fillet around the edges, but I guess why not. The underlayer isn't really butt jointed either--lap joint. The damage was to the middle of the hole they sawed. they scraped off the core material and added laminate lapping over the margin. Looked like a fine repair to me. I liked the peel-ply step to get the layers well incorporated and remove the excess resin. I'm going to start doing that for non-vac bag repairs.

[Bean]

If the underlayer is intact (and on second glance, it would appear to be) I would totally agree.

[Bean]

PB, on a similar topic, with respect to carbon fiber repairs you had mentioned that Boeing says 1" is sufficient is that on a lap joint or scarf joint.