Cost-effective technique for producing longitudinal microgrooves in situ of near-optical quality has been developed to improve the aerodynamic performance of aircraft. The production technique utilizes a flexible tooling sheet, which is pressurized onto the painted surface of aircraft wings and fuselage under moderate temperature. In this method, the surface of aircraft is moulded with the pattern of the tooling sheet which can be mass-produced using conventional roller-rolling techniques. Both of the surfaces with thermo-plastic paints (e.g., acrylic lacquer) and thermo-setting paints (e.g. polyurethane) can be applied with this technique to produce triangular micro-grooves of 50 micrometers on the aircraft surface, which can save the jet-fuel cost by more than 2 percent.

Date Published: 1 April 1992
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 1573, Commercial Applications of Precision Manufacturing at the Sub-Micron Level, (1 April 1992); doi: 10.1117/12.57752

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1573:
Commercial Applications of Precision Manufacturing at the Sub-Micron Level
Lionel R. Baker, Editor(s)