Publication

Optimizing the production and processing of fibre reinforced thermoplastic pre-impregnated materials

Bibliographic Details
Summary:	The aim of this work is to optimize the production of new continuous carbon fibres reinforced polypropylene matrix pre-impregnated materials (towpregs) continuously processed by dry deposition of polypropylene (PP) powder. The processing of the produced towpregs by pultrusion using a prototype equipment was also optimized. The method of Taguchi/DOE (Design of Experiments) was used to achieve this goal allowing improved choices of processing windows. Towpregs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), visual analysis and their polymer mass contents were also determined. The final pultruded composite profiles were also submitted to tensile, interlaminar, flexural, calcination and optical microscopy tests.
Main Authors:	Novo, P. J.
Other Authors:	Silva, J. F.; Nunes, J. P.; Marques, A. T.
Subject:	Towpreg Composite materials Pultrusion Polypropylene Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia dos Materiais
Year:	2014
Country:	Portugal
Document type:	conference paper
Access type:	open access
Associated institution:	Universidade do Minho
Language:	English
Origin:	RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho

Description
Summary:	The aim of this work is to optimize the production of new continuous carbon fibres reinforced polypropylene matrix pre-impregnated materials (towpregs) continuously processed by dry deposition of polypropylene (PP) powder. The processing of the produced towpregs by pultrusion using a prototype equipment was also optimized. The method of Taguchi/DOE (Design of Experiments) was used to achieve this goal allowing improved choices of processing windows. Towpregs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), visual analysis and their polymer mass contents were also determined. The final pultruded composite profiles were also submitted to tensile, interlaminar, flexural, calcination and optical microscopy tests.