Identification of some optimal parameters to achieve higher laminate quality through tape placement process

Abstract

Investigations of the tape placement process are still underway to achieve the laminate quality comparable with other highly developed composite manufacturing methods, such as autoclave-based processes. The evaluation of the products and the mechanical properties of the material has revealed regions where some upgrading could bring significant enhancement in performance. This study is concerned with issues related to the characterization of material properties, interlaminar bond development, and ways of optimizing process parameters. These include heating, layup velocity, tool temperature, and consolidation force, which were studied to determine their effects on the mechanical strength of the composites produced. The bonding degree of the laminates was simulated taking into account a combination of process parameters, comparing the predictions with the actual test results. The thermal stability of the polyether ether ketone matrix, in relation to the processing conditions used in the manufacture, and their effects on the interlaminar bonding

Mechanical characterisation of carbon fibre–PEEK manufactured by laser-assisted automated-tape-placement and autoclave

“…Healing continues several layers under the consolidation roller on each pass. Indeed, it is common practice to reconsolidate the final ply multiple times to maximise consolidation in the plies beneath, improving mechanical properties [8,19]. The hot-gas process can typically achieve mechanical properties close to autoclave level, although achieving the final 10% has proved elusive [3,6,7], and lay-down speeds to achieve the best mechanical properties tend to be relatively low (<5 m/min) [7].…”

“…Hot gas has been a popular choice and is well covered in the literature e.g. [3][4][5][6][7][8]. With hot-gas, multi-ply melting [21] occurs creating a relatively large process zone.…”

“…Pre-preg properties such as void content, level of crystallinity, dimensional tolerance, and fibre volume fraction are critical to the quality of the final part. Additional factors influencing ATP part quality include: (a) heat source [16], (b) processing parameters (which must be optimised for a particular material and processing head [8,17,18]), and (c) lay-down strategy (e.g. offsetting tape tracks from layer to layer reduces the agglomeration of weak spots [18]).…”

“…In general, autoclave processing of semi-crystalline thermoplastic composite materials such as carbon-fibre/PEEK (CF/PEEK) is widely considered to produce the highest quality laminates in terms of mechanical properties and is commonly used to benchmark less established manufacturing processes such as ATP [3][4][5][6][7][8]. The autoclave process provides sufficient time at elevated temperature and pressure to allow macroscopic resin flow, reptation of polymer chains across ply interfaces, and various void reduction mechanisms (e.g.…”

Interface Characterization of Thermoplastic Skin-Stiffener Composite Manufactured using Laser-Assisted Tape Placement

“…Many other researchers reported the short beam strength of CF/PEEK composites which are produced from heat press, 9 autoclave 7,10 and autoclave re-consolidation of ATP. 11,12 All these studies investigated the short beam strength of flat composite laminates.…”