Determination of Manufacturing Conditions for Hot-Gas-Aided Thermoplastic Tape Winding

Abstract

Carbon/PEEK (APC-2) thermoplastic composite rings are manufactured by the thermoplastic tape winding process using hot nitrogen gas as a heat source. In the tape winding process, localized melting causes a high rate of heating and cooling, which demands different manufacturing conditions from hot pressing and autoclave processing. Heating rate and cooling rate are found to be more than 20,0000C/min and 5,0000C/min, respectively, and melt time is found to be in the range of 1 to 4 seconds for hot gas processing. Shorter melt times and higher heating rate during the on-line consolidation process require higher processing temperatures (greater than 600'C) for sufficient molecular interdiffusion. Higher molecular interdiff-usion would produce better interlaminar properties. During the production of thermoplastic composite parts using the thermoplastic tape winding process, several parameters such as heat intensity, tape speed, consolidation pressure, preheating temperature of tape and tool material, and cooling rate can affect the properties of an end product. A judicious selection of such parameters can produce a composite part which has fewer voids, better consolidation, minimum residual stress, desired crystallinity and high quality. Effects of dominant processing parameters such as heat intensity, tape speed, and consolidation pressure on temperature distribution, processinduced deformation, quality of consolidation, and crystallinity are examined.