Integrated Defect Classification in Manufacturing of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Thermoplastic Polymer Matrix Composites

Abstract

Thermoplastic polymer matrix composites with continuous carbon fibre reinforcements are of crucial relevance in automotive industry. The mix of high performance and cost effective manufacturing makes them attractive for high volume production. However, it could be shown that production integrated end of line quality control is of strong importance to ensure continuous and traceable part quality. Besides, typical non destructive testing method specifications, higher production volumes additionally require short testing times. Herein, the application of active thermography as end of line quality control in composite production is evaluated and compared with results obtained by X-ray radiometry. It could be revealed that transient pulse phase thermography is a powerful tool to analyse part quality of continuous thermoplastic polymer matrix composites in short testing times.

Active Thermography for Automated Testing of Composite Structural Components

“…Comprehensive studies on a range of quality attributes and material combinations of FRC show that the method is not only suitable for testing the quality of FRCs but is actually sometimes preferable to other non-destructive testing methods [5][6][7][8]. While economic considerations support this view, the method has other advantages that can be highlighted.…”