ARTICLE:

• PROCESSING OF THERMOPLASTIC-MATRIX COMPOSITE MATERIALS  download article

Randa Pitchumani
University of Connecticut School of Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering 191 Auditorium Road, U-139 Storrs, Connecticut 06269-3139

ABSTRACT

Fabrication of fiber-reinforced thermoplastic-matrix composite products is usually accomplished in two steps: In the first step, called prepregging, thin layers of reinforcement fibers are impregnated with the thermoplastic matrix to form prepregs. The second step is that of part fabrication by incrementally stacking and fusion-bonding thermoplastic prepreg layers to the desired shape and thickness. The process parameters, namely the applied pressure, heat, and the processing time, strongly influence the product quality through complex transport processes at multiple scales that are highly coupled. An understanding of these processes and their interactions has been vital to advancing the processing state-of-the-art from being heuristics-based to being at least partially science-based. The intention of this article is to present the basic processing principles and to document the progress in the understanding of the governing mechanisms, particularly in regard to the transport phenomena-related issues involved in the processing.

 download article

117-186 pages

« Previous article         Next article »