On November 10, 2020, Veelo Technologies announced its relationship with the F-35 Joint Program Office, Navy ManTech, and Air Force ManTech to reduce the manufacturing costs of hand-laid composite parts while also developing new capabilities that improve on-aircraft repair. The contract was awarded to Veelo Technologies because of the company’s new out-of-autoclave and repair technology, VeeloHEAT®. 

One of the problems with composite weapon systems is that composite parts often require intermediate heating processes to compact carbon fiber prepreg plies and reduce the risk of air pockets that will cause parts to be scrapped. This process, known as ‘hot debulk’, is performed multiple times before a final cure cycle is performed. Currently, technicians and operators are required to lay up a few plies of carbon fiber prepreg, bag the part, move the tool to the oven, run a low-temp cycle, move the tool back to the workstation, unbag the part, and repeat the process multiple times before the part is ready for final cure. This standard operation procedure results in tremendous cost and operational inefficiencies.   

Read on to learn how Veelo’s OOA and In-Situ heating solutions address these costly issues and are helping customers including F-35 development partners achieve new levels of span reduction and operational efficiencies.