Today I would like to discuss the accuracy of FRP radome with you. What are the main factors affecting the machining accuracy of FRP radome in communication industry? Is it the craft? Is it equipment? Or the material? Not really.
In terms of technology, the manufacturing processes of FRP radomes include pultrusion, hand paste, molding, winding, etc., and the manufacturing accuracy of radomes produced by these processes is generally between 0.1~1mm/500mm, which can be satisfied for common civil, military, airport, residential and other places. However, it is far from enough for the field of high precision. It is important to know that the accuracy requirements of aviation and aerospace radome are mostly less than 0.1mm/500mm. It is obvious that such requirements cannot be directly manufactured with the current production process, but need later processing to achieve.
At present, the only equipment that can make the processing accuracy of FRP radome reach 0.1mm/500mm is CNC, but not all CNC machines can meet such requirements, which requires repeated verification before reaching a conclusion.
At present, the materials used for manufacturing FRP radomes are mainly prepreg, SMC block and resin fiber separator. The principle of these three types of materials is roughly the same, but they are presented in different states. They are designed to match the production process, so it has no direct relationship with the processing accuracy of FRP radomes.
To sum up, the main factor affecting the machining accuracy of FRP radome is actually customer requirements. As long as reasonable accuracy requirements are given, it is basically achievable under the current industrial conditions, but the cost is different.
