Patent attributes
A pressure vessel (10) and a process for its fabrication, the vessel (10) having a liner shell (16) formed from composite materials cured out-of-autoclave, and an outer structure (18) formed by winding or laying up additional layers of composite material over the liner shell. The liner shell (16) is formed as two halves, each with an opening into which a boss fitting (20) is installed. The two halves may be separately formed by a lay-up process, or first formed as a whole liner shell by filament winding, the whole liner shell then being cut in half to permit installation of the boss fittings (20). After curing, the halves are assembled and the outer structure (18) is wrapped over the liner shell (16) and also cured out-of-autoclave. The resulting pressure vessel (10) can be used for reliable storage of cryogenic or other materials, yet is light in weight and not costly.
