[PSUBS-MAILIST] Non developable surfaces

[Joe Perkel]

Marc,

Those canopies of course, are made by industry with industrial capital and support. I was thinking more of a homegrown method.  

Is it then possible to heat a flat sheet in a conventional oven to x degrees for x time, then form over a plug or mould, that kind of thing.

Hank,

Standard k MBT thickness no bigger than say Gamma's window.

For the curve complexity, no more than to keep lines fair and or tangent transitions.

Joe


On Feb 15, 2014, at 7:49 PM, Marc de Piolenc <piolenc at archivale.com> wrote:

> It can't be too difficult. Compound-curved Plexiglas (British: Perspex) cockpit canopies have been made for decades, and the full-surround "bubble" cockpit of the Bell 47 helicopter dates to the late 1940s. The problems we run into with acrylic pressure hulls are caused by thickness and the consequent need to use casting technique instead of blowing, but that's not going to be a problem for you in making a transparent ballast tank shell.
> 
> Do you want me to dig into the aeronautical literature?
> 
> Marc de Piolenc
> Aero-geek
> 
> On 2/16/2014 8:18 AM, Joe Perkel wrote:
>> 
>> How much trouble is it to form acrylic in two directions? As in following a complex hull form to make an integral window.
>> 
>> In other words a transparent section of MBT with a bidirectional curve.
>> 
>> Joe
>> 
>> 
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