Imagine being able to mold and manufacture parts the size of a bedroom in just two days. A system for composite fabrication, based on a material that has been nicknamed “engineered quicksand,” provides such fast and inexpensive tooling to both the aerospace and transportation industries.

An example of a pressure vessel that can be manufactured using 2Phase Technologies’ RTS system.

The company was awarded $820,000 in MDA funding through Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I and II contracts between 2003 and 2006. The contracts focused on the manufacture, modification, and redesign of rocket motor casings using 2Phase’s reconfigurable tooling approaches. The result was a tooling solution that allowed a motor case with precision-located features to be manufactured quickly and inexpensively over a lightweight mandrel that could be removed quickly and simply after the fabrication was complete.

2Phase’s system has advantages in cost, speed, and scalability over competing rapid-tooling approaches. The company expects the overall manufacturing cost of a generic 4 × 4' rapid tool to decrease tenfold from $5,000 to $500, while providing improved tool performance. Using a unique replication process to create tools from a master model or original part is the key to the cost savings. Speed is also a factor, with the total turnaround time from master to mold to finished product being one to two days, as compared with the several weeks to months required to fabricate tooling for composites using conventional methods.

Scalability is also key, and the RTS can make use of large tool beds — which can vary in size depending on the customer needs — currently ranging from roughly 2 × 3' to 6 x 9'. The company already has built concept tool beds that can handle the fabrication or replication of parts more than 65' long. For the U.S. Army, it also has designed tool beds that have successfully replicated the hood of an M35 truck and the cargo-bay door of a Black Hawk helicopter.

2Phase’s system is commercially available in its fourth iteration, the RTS 4000. The customer base for the equipment is expected to be aerospace and transportation manufacturers who need rapid, low-cost, and very large original or replacement parts.