Basic Principles of Composites
Panels
Environmental factors
basic materials

Overview of Technique
handling and cutting glass cloth
measuring and mixing resin
wetting out
handling core materials
basic vacuum bagging components

Material Handling
shop safety
measuring epoxy
glass cloth
tinting resin
thixotropic fumed silica
working temperatures

Handling And Cutting Foam
cutting sheets
carving foam
attaching foam to forms
hot wire cutting
curved shapes
attaching foam to foam
bending unskinned foam sheets
bending thick flat panels
bending slotted sheets

Basic Lay-up Techniques
wetting-out techniques
the prepreg sandwich
wet glass tape
bonding fiber skins to foam

Flat Tool Vacuum Bagging
flat tool technique
basic vacuum bag process

Joints And Adhesives
trimmed cured skins
nature of adhesives
practical adhesives
bonded joints
alignment, clamping, and inspection

Taping and Basic Corners
tape making
corner bonding

Formed Curves and Corners
bending single skinned foam
folded corners
bending slotted sheets
short radius folded joints
the Vision Aircraft example

Flanges and Closing
the closing problem

Attachments
load transitions

Single Curved Molds
sheet molds
shaping the mold sheets
using a single curved mold
very shapely curved molds

Molding Techniques
small shop commercial practice
general principles
producing a part from a mold

Exercises
1] basic open flat layup
2] basic transfer layup
3] basic vacuum bagging
4] accurate prepregs
5] flat sandwich laminate
6] cored skin sandwich
7] bonding panels
8] vacuum release film experiment
9] flat cored panels
10] forming and joining
11] mailbox door and finishing
12] flat sided fuselage simulation
13] single curved wing skin mold
14] single curved wing skin
15] wing skin ribs and webs
16] bottom wing skin
17] wing closing flanges

Appendix
common tools
temperature control
standard composite tools
measuring epoxy
foam tools
elementary beam theory
fibers, weaves, and matrices