Direct Processing of Structural Thermoplastic Composites Using Rapid Isothermal Stamp Forming

A novel rapid isothermal stamp forming process is proposed which enables the rapid manufacture of structural thermoplastic composite laminate parts directly from multilayer hybrid fabrics comprising stitched unidirectional carbon fibre-thermoplastic polymer veil. The process employs rapid-response v...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied composite materials 2020-04, Vol.27 (1-2), p.107-115
Main Authors: Reynolds, N., Awang-Ngah, S., Williams, G., Hughes, D. J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Carbon fiber reinforced plastics
Characterization and Evaluation of Materials
Chemistry and Materials Science
Classical Mechanics
Composite materials
Cycle time
Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering
Materials Science
Mechanical properties
Melt temperature
Multilayers
Polymer matrix composites
Polymer Sciences
Rapid manufacturing
Stamp forming
Textile composites
Tooling
Wetting
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Summary:A novel rapid isothermal stamp forming process is proposed which enables the rapid manufacture of structural thermoplastic composite laminate parts directly from multilayer hybrid fabrics comprising stitched unidirectional carbon fibre-thermoplastic polymer veil. The process employs rapid-response variothermal tooling, allowing macro-scale (fabric forming/draping) and micro-scale (fibre wetting/laminate consolidation) composite material transformation processes to occur isothermally above the constituent polymer matrix melt temperature (T m ), thus manufacturing a composite component directly from a hybrid dry fabric in a single press cycle in a relatively short overall cycle time. The proposed rapid isothermal stamp forming (RISF) concept is presented, and details of the process are given along with some considerations made throughout the formulation of the process. As a result of the RISF process development work, candidate manufacturing parameters were derived, delivering parts that exhibit acceptable composite laminate microstructure and mechanical performance within a press station cycle time of 330 s.
ISSN:0929-189X
1573-4897
DOI:10.1007/s10443-020-09797-4