Automated fabrication of hybrid thermoplastic prepreg material to be processed by In-Situ Consolidation Automated Fiber Placement process

This work deals with the fabrication of an innovative hybrid thermoplastic prepreg by continuous hot forming process. The material, suitable also for Automated Fiber Placement process, is produced through a consolidation of commercial PEEK-Carbon Fiber prepreg sandwiched between two amorphous PEI films. Consolidation is performed by a purpose-designed automated prototype equipment operating on defined pressure and thermal cycles. Then preliminary tests on first trials produced were carried out. These activities have been developed in the frame of the NHYTE project, a Research and Innovation Action funded by the European Union's H2020 framework programme, under Grant Agreement No 723309 NOVOTECH acting as Coordinator presents this paper on behalf of all Partners of the project. The proof of NHYTE project concept is the manufacturing of a fastener free and high performing fuselage portion demonstrator.

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In Situ Impregnation of Continuous Thermoplastic Composite Prepreg for Additive Manufacturing and Automated Fiber Placement

Composites Part A Applied Science and Manufacturing ◽

10.1016/j.compositesa.2021.106446 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 106446

Author(s):

James Garofalo ◽

Daniel Walczyk

Keyword(s):

Additive Manufacturing ◽

Thermoplastic Composite ◽

Fiber Placement ◽

Automated Fiber Placement

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Review: Filament Winding and Automated Fiber Placement with In Situ Consolidation for Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Polymer Composites

Polymers ◽

10.3390/polym13121951 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (12) ◽

pp. 1951

Author(s):

Yi Di Boon ◽

Sunil Chandrakant Joshi ◽

Somen Kumar Bhudolia

Keyword(s):

Processing Parameters ◽

Filament Winding ◽

Reference Points ◽

Thermoplastic Composites ◽

Manufacturing Processes ◽

Fiber Reinforced ◽

Consolidation Process ◽

Fiber Placement ◽

Automated Fiber Placement

Fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites are gaining popularity in many industries due to their short consolidation cycles, among other advantages over thermoset-based composites. Computer aided manufacturing processes, such as filament winding and automated fiber placement, have been used conventionally for thermoset-based composites. The automated processes can be adapted to include in situ consolidation for the fabrication of thermoplastic-based composites. In this paper, a detailed literature review on the factors affecting the in situ consolidation process is presented. The models used to study the various aspects of the in situ consolidation process are discussed. The processing parameters that gave good consolidation results in past studies are compiled and highlighted. The parameters can be used as reference points for future studies to further improve the automated manufacturing processes.

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Numerical analysis of the temperature profile during the laser-assisted automated fiber placement of CFRP tapes with thermoplastic matrix

Journal of Thermoplastic Composite Materials ◽

10.1177/0892705717738304 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 31 (12) ◽

pp. 1563-1586 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Andreas Kollmannsberger ◽

Roland Lichtinger ◽

Franz Hohenester ◽

Christoph Ebel ◽

Klaus Drechsler

Keyword(s):

Carbon Fiber ◽

Contact Resistance ◽

Thermal Contact Resistance ◽

Thermal Contact ◽

Fiber Placement ◽

Composite Layers ◽

Automated Fiber Placement ◽

Geometric Boundary ◽

Laser Heat Source ◽

Placement Machine

In this study, a thermodynamic model of a laser-assisted automated thermoplastic fiber placement process is developed and validated. The main focus is on modeling the heat transfer into the composite with a laser heat source, the thermal properties of the tape, and the resulting heat distribution in the part, the mold, and the compaction roller. A new integrated analytical method is presented to calculate the energy input of the laser based on the geometric boundary conditions, including first-order reflection and laser shadow. The carbon fiber/polyethersulphone tape is modeled by combining literature properties of carbon fiber and matrix as well as based on experimental data of the tape itself. Also a thermal contact resistance between the tape layers is modeled based on a literature model and own experimental measurements. The created model is discretized and implemented in a 2-D finite difference code. With the help of this simulation, the temperature distribution is calculated during layup. The influence of a possible thermal contact resistance between the composite layers is investigated. Furthermore, an experiment with a thermoplastic fiber placement machine from Advanced Fibre Placement Technology GmbH (AFPT) was conducted in order to evaluate the simulation. The simulation and the experiment show a good agreement and prove that thermal contact resistance between the layers is negligible for the investigation process.

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Effects of processing parameters on the performance of carbon fiber reinforced polyphenylene sulfide laminates manufactured by laser-assisted automated fiber placement

Journal of Composite Materials ◽

10.1177/00219983211055827 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 002199832110558

Author(s):

Dacheng Zhao ◽

Jiping Chen ◽

Haoxuan Zhang ◽

Weiping Liu ◽

Guangquan Yue ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Carbon Fiber ◽

Process Parameters ◽

Compaction Pressure ◽

Polyphenylene Sulfide ◽

Void Content ◽

Fiber Reinforced ◽

Tool Temperature ◽

Fiber Placement ◽

Automated Fiber Placement ◽

Carbon Fiber Reinforced

In situ consolidation of thermoplastic composites can be realized through laser-assisted automated fiber placement (AFP) technology, and the properties of composites were significant affected by the process parameters. In this work, the effects of process parameters on the properties of continuous carbon fiber–reinforced polyphenylene sulfide (CF/PPS) composites manufactured by laser-assisted AFP were investigated. Four-plies CF/PPS prepreg was laid under the combination of different process parameters and the morphology, void content, crystallinity, and inter-laminar shear strength (ILSS) of the composites were characterized. It turned out that the resin distribution on the surface of the composites could be significantly improved by increasing the laser temperature and compaction pressure. The highest crystallinity of the composites reached 46% at tool temperature of 120°C while the value was only 18% when the tool temperature was 40°C. Meanwhile, with the increasing compaction force ranging of 500–2000 N, the void content of the composites decreased obviously. The ILSS was evaluated through double notch tensile shear test. The results indicated that the mechanical properties of the composites were dominated by void content rather than crystallinity.

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In Situ Joining of Unidirectional Tapes on Long Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Structures by Thermoplastic Automated Fiber Placement for Scientific Sounding Rocket Applications

Procedia CIRP ◽

10.1016/j.procir.2019.09.015 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 85 ◽

pp. 189-194

Author(s):

Ralf Engelhardt ◽

Stefan Ehard ◽

Tobias Wolf ◽

Jonathan Oelhafen ◽

Andreas Kollmannsberger ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sounding Rocket ◽

Fiber Reinforced ◽

Fiber Placement ◽

Automated Fiber Placement

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Postprocessing method-induced mechanical properties of carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites

Journal of Thermoplastic Composite Materials ◽

10.1177/0892705720945376 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 089270572094537

Author(s):

Van-Tho Hoang ◽

Bo-Seong Kwon ◽

Jung-Won Sung ◽

Hyeon-Seok Choe ◽

Se-Woon Oh ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mechanical Properties ◽

Carbon Fiber ◽

Processing Parameters ◽

Thermoplastic Composites ◽

Void Content ◽

Fiber Reinforced ◽

Crystallinity Degree ◽

Automated Fiber Placement ◽

Carbon Fiber Reinforced

Promising carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic (CF/polyetherketoneketone (PEKK)) composites were fabricated by the state-of-the-art technology known as “Automated Fiber Placement.” The mechanical properties of CF/PEKK were evaluated for four different postprocessing methods: in situ consolidation, annealing, vacuum bag only (VBO), and hot press (HP). The evaluation was performed by narrowing down the relevant processing parameters (temperature and layup speed). Furthermore, the void content and crystallinity of CF/PEKK were measured to determine the effect of these postprocessing processes. The HP process resulted in the best quality with the highest interlaminar shear strength, highest crystallinity degree, and lowest void content. The second most effective method was VBO, and annealing also realized an improvement compared with in situ consolidation. The correlation between the postprocessing method and the void content and crystallinity degree was also discussed.

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