Composite Manufacturing Capabilities

Kaman Composite Structures is organized around LEAN Manufacturing Teams and Production Cells. Kaman has the capability to produce a range of composite structures, producing monolithic and sandwich parts from a range of materials including carbon fiber composite, glass and Aramid cured by autoclave. We specialize in military and civil applications with a considerable range of products including flight controls such as aileron assemblies, and winglets.

Special capabilities include:

  • Complex Metal and Composite Main & Tail Rotor Blades and component manufacturing
  • Complex Fixed Wing and Rotary Wing Metal Bonded Components manufacturing
  • Composite ISR flight structures, lightweight electronic enclosures, and space structures manufacturing
  • Medical imaging tables, plates and headrests

capabilities

Fibers

  • Carbon
  • Glass
  • Quartz
  • Kevlar
fibers resin

Resin

  • Epoxy
  • Phenolic
  • Cyanate Esters
capabilities

Cores

  • Rohacell®
  • Nomex® Honeycomb
  • Aluminum Honeycomb
  • Urethane Foam

Metal Bonding

Kaman Composite Structures offers a unique metal-to-metal bonding expertise to the aerospace market. We have a range of autoclaves and readily available capacity. Kaman holds Nadcap approval for composite pre-preg manufacture and metal-to-metal bonding to AS 7118.

Kaman can manufacture metallic details, skins and honeycomb cores prior to bonding and assembly. Specific adhesives are procured from suppliers with recognized accreditations, and applied to the surfaces of the parts to be bonded. The assembly is then cured at the specified temperature and pressure, using one of the autoclaves at our facilities, prior to final assembly and finish paint.

metal bonding composites
compression mold

Compression Molding

Kaman Composite Structures has seven presses ranging from 25 to 400 ton capability with up to a 4 foot by 5 foot platen size. Our material prep room is environmentally controlled to control material out time.

The materials used for this process vary to support individual customer specifications to support the following applications:

  • Flight surfaces
  • Electrical resistance
  • Flammability and/or impact strengths

The molding processes allows for integral thickness changes for bosses or ribs and for molding in inserts. Our post processing paint operations offers turnkey molded products. The processes are AS9100 Rev. D and NADCAP (Composite and NDI) certified.

Thermoforming

Kaman Composite Structures has thermoforming machines that can accommodate up to four by eight foot sheets of thermoplastic material, (i.e., Kydex, Lexan, and Royalite). The products produced are used for non-structural applications for business jet and helicopter interiors, ground support equipment and/or various small aircraft fairings with surface finish resembling leather or light graining effects.

Thermoforming is ideal for high production, non-structural and low-cost applications. The processes are AS9100 Rev. D and NADCAP (Composite and NDI) certified.

thermoforming

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