The present invention provides an improved tubular structure which uses the properties
of different materials, such as stiffness, strength, and density are exploited
in a manner which combines the most attractive characteristics of existing metal
and composite tubes into a metal/composite tube which contains performance characteristics
(stiffness, strength or weight) not possible with pure metal or composite materials.
For example, an improved tube is suitably created with a conventional metallic
tube structure (e.g., steel, aluminum, titanium or the like). The original tube
is modified with a secondary operation such as machining, punching, laser cutting
or the like to remove various portions of the original tube wall, resulting in
a tube with some pattern of "holes" or "cutaway" sections, thus resulting in a
lighter tube. The tube is then suitably "fused" with composite material. For example,
in one embodiment of the present invention, the metal piece is placed in a mold
assembly and composite materials are molded inside the metal tube resulting in
a part metal and part composite tube that has beneficial characteristics of each material.
