Fusion Bonding of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Laminates

Abstract

Technique of including an amorphous thermoplastic film as the outermost layer of thermoset composites have been developed to join the thermoset composites using fusion bonding methods. Based on a WLF temperature dependence and a time dependence of t1/4, isothermal and non-isothermal models were developed to relate the recovery of bonding strength to welding temperature and time. The isothermal model failed to take into account the time taken for the bonding interface to reach the glass transition temperature and final desired bonding temperature and lacked predictive power for experiments with short bonding times and low shear strength recovery. The non-isothermal model provided an excellent fit to the experimental date, showing a significant improvement over the isothermal model.