Dunstone Streamlines Production of Aerospace Thermal Insulation Covers
Industry
Aerospace Composites
Application
Company makes epoxy/glass and phenolic/glass thermal insulation covers which are used as heat shields over the metallic ducting systems they produce.
Problem
Company was using cellophane film and PVA film to overwrap their parts and provide compression during the cure cycle. Production required two separate wrapping operations to cover each part, one with cellophane, and one for PVA. Cellophane used as release liner underneath the PVA layer was sticking to epoxy/glass prepregs after cure. Customer was soaking each part in water for 24 hours to soften up cellophane layer and subsequent production step was required to scrape the remaining cellophane from the part.
Dunstone Solution
Hi-Shrink Tape 210R (.002″ thick, 10% shrink, release coated polyester shrink tape)
Implementation
The customer was able to reduce the wrapping step down to one operation, as they were able to achieve sufficient part compaction using only one layer of our film vs two layers (cellophane & PVA) previously. Because the PTFE release coated tape removes cleanly from the part post-cure, the Dunstone Hi-Shrink Tape allowed the customer to completely eliminate the 24 hour long H20 soak for all parts, which increased throughput in that work cell. The bottom line savings realized by the customer amounted to $150,000/year.