Description: Large, single-piece composite structures for NASA launch vehicles are currently very expensive or impossible to fabricate partly because of the capital (ovens, autoclaves, and tooling) needed to cure the part and maintain tolerances at cure conditions. CRG proposes the use of recently developed, no-oven, no-autoclave composite processing technology to fabricate very large, high-performance, single-piece composite structures and tooling for NASA launch vehicles and other aerospace structures. This will reduce capital (plant, equipment, and tooling), operating, and labor-based manufacturing costs. This technology enables rapid manufacturing of large, single-piece structures with no dependence on size-limiting infrastructure and offers the potential for on-site manufacturing. CRG believes this technology to be equally beneficial for quick throughput in smaller sized, high-volume production; but the proposed focus will be large, low-volume production. This technology proposes to surpass current efforts on out-of-autoclave composite processing technology in terms of both acquisition and operations cost to the end user. This will be accomplished through lower production costs and lightweight, unitized structures that require less maintenance. This three-phase program proposes to advance this technology from a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 4 and a Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL) of 3 to a TRL of 9 and a MRL of 9.

Benefits: This project's technologies developed for NASA systems would directly apply to systems operated by other government and commercial enterprises. Government systems that would derive the same benefits would include future Joint Heavy Lift and other cargo aircraft and future Navy ships operated by the Department of Defense. This technology's attributes for very large, affordable composite structures should yield a high potential for private sector commercialization of private space launch vehicles, commercial aircraft, large marine craft, and wind blades and towers.

Supporting NASA' s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, this project's technologies directly address requirements for advanced manufacturing technologies for composite materials for launch and in-space vehicle structures. This project's technology offers the ability to produce very large, high-performance, single-piece, affordable composite structures and tooling for these systems, providing benefit beyond current autoclave and out-of-autoclave cure systems.