Internal resistance heating for homogeneous curing of adhesively bonded repairs

Carbon-fibre/bismaleimide (BMI) composite joints were manufactured using resistive heating of a stainless steel mesh embedded between two layers of structural adhesive. In comparison with joints cured thermally, electrically cured joints achieved similar shear strengths. The surface treatment of the stainless steel mesh was critical in achieving satisfactory shear strength. The electrical curing process has been shown to be adaptable to field repairs of composite structures through the use of a modified low voltage AC power supply, traditionally used with heater blanket technology. The embedded mesh curing technique might obviate problems associated with achieving even, through thickness heating of composite structure during bonding of scarf and doubler repairs.