Impregnation quality of shredded semipreg after compression moulding

G. Vincent, V. Balakrishnan, T.A. de Bruijn, S. Wijskamp, M.I. Abdul Rasheed

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademicpeer-review

    3 Citations (Scopus)
    2 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Manufacturing of thermoplastic composites (TPC) inherently generates scrap, mainly in the form of offcuts or rejected parts. The growth of TPC over recent decades has now reached a point where developing specific recycling solutions for TPC waste has become crucial. While looking at the various steps during which scrap is produced, the nesting of semipreg or prepreg appears to be critical. This work aims to develop a route for recycling semipreg offcuts, comprising shredding and compression moulding. This article focuses on an experimental study of the compression moulding step of carbon fibres reinforced PPS (C/PPS) to investigate the uniformity and impregnation quality of plates. These plates were realised in a picture frame while varying both the fibre volume content between 30% and 50% and the processing parameters. Visual inspection and cross-sectional microscopy were performed to assess the quality of each plate. As a first step, the influence of the type of added matrix (film, powder, pellets) and the type of pre-impregnation (film, powder) was studied. Stacking of polymer powder with shredded powder-coated semipreg gave the best impregnation quality. It was also shown that longer dwell time at melt leads to better consolidation quality. However, the difficulty in obtaining good impregnation comes from the disentangled shredded material, which is composed of three forms: semipreg flakes, dry bundles and pieces of matrix. When dry bundles reach the mould surfaces during the filling of the mould or when they are packed together, the consolidation cycle hardly impregnates them and they remain dry afterwards. Furthermore, large local variations of fibre fraction were noticed, resulting from a random mould filling. Therefore, the recycling solution for shredded semipreg is feasible when the fibre fraction is reduced but improvements on the part variability still have to be made.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationProceedings 20th International ESAFORM Conference on Material Forming 2017
    PublisherAmerican Institute of Physics
    Chapter030019
    Number of pages6
    ISBN (Print)978-0-7354-1580-5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Oct 2017
    Event20th International ESAFORM Conference on Material Forming - City University Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
    Duration: 26 Apr 201728 Apr 2017
    Conference number: 20
    http://www.esaform2017.com/ehome/index.php?eventid=153382&

    Publication series

    NameAIP Conference Proceedings
    PublisherAIP Publishing
    Volume1896
    ISSN (Print)0094-243X
    ISSN (Electronic)1551-7616

    Conference

    Conference20th International ESAFORM Conference on Material Forming
    Abbreviated titleESAFORM 2017
    Country/TerritoryIreland
    CityDublin
    Period26/04/1728/04/17
    Internet address

    Keywords

    • 2025 OA procedure
    • Composite materials
    • Microscopy
    • Polymers
    • Material forming

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