Research of Safe Technology of Impregnation of Heated Reinforcing Materials with Binder

Abstract

Prepreg manufacturing process is one of the most important preparatory technological processes, quality of which has the decisive influence on the physical, mechanical, processing and operational characteristics of the finished composite product. However, manufacturing of prepregs is associated with a number of harmful factors, negatively affecting the participants in the technological process and the environment. Consequently, significant additional costs are required in order to ensure specified maximum permissible levels and concentrations of the harmful products released by the components of polymeric composite materials in the product manufacturing process. The paper deals with the study of peculiarities and efficiency of impregnation of the heated reinforcing material using solvent-free binder. The method for predicting the optimal process parameters of binder solutions for impregnation of prepregs, taking into account the safety of production activity, has been developed. The problem of thermal conductivity from the heated reinforcing material to the binder, which allowed establishing the law of temperature distribution over the depth of the impregnating bath, depending on the duration of continuous impregnation, has been solved. It is found that the binder, with the duration of impregnation even within one working shift, heats up to the temperatures excluding the formation of centers of exothermic polymerization reaction in it. It indicates the availability of the effective regimes of impregnation using the method under study. The paper proposes the practical ways of improvement of the investigated method of impregnation by varying the wavelength, programmed change of the temperature of the reinforcing material at the entry to the bath, and setting of the optimal coordinates of the binder supply as it is drawn in the process of continuous impregnation of the reinforcing material.