Abstract
During the production of fiber-reinforced composite materials, liquid resin is introduced into the fiber material and cured, i.e., hardened. An elevated temperature is needed for this curing. Microwave curing of composites has been investigated for some time, but it has mostly been done using small domestic or laboratory equipment. However, no investigation has been carried out using an industrial-sized chamber-microwave for glass fiber-reinforced plastic (GFRP). Here, we show that microwave curing produces laminates of the same quality as oven-cured ones. The study shows that, if the process is done right, GFRP samples can be produced with an industrial scale microwave. Even if not fully cured, microwave samples show a glass transition temperature measured with DMA (Tg-DMA) that is comparable to the Tg-DMA according to the proposed cure cycle on the data sheet. Specific microwave-cured configurations show better inter-laminar shear strength than oven specimens. The results show that microwave-based heat introduction can be a beneficial curing method for GFRP laminates. A microwave-optimized process is faster and leads to better mechanical properties.
Highlights
As Volker Mathes states in [1] “Fiber reinforced plastics— known as composites—have been attracting enormous media interest over the last few months, especially in lightweight construction”.A sub-group of this fiber-reinforced plasticss (FRPs) are glass fiber reinforced thermosetting plastics (GRPs)
The results show that microwave-based heat introduction can be a beneficial curing method for glass fiber-reinforced plastic (GFRP) laminates
Glass-ceramic plates NEXTREMATM724-8 by SCHOTT (Mainz, RP, Germany) [49] and GFRP tools are used as tools for microwave manufacturing
Summary
As Volker Mathes states in [1] “Fiber reinforced plastics— known as composites—have been attracting enormous media interest over the last few months, especially in lightweight construction”. As a solution for the inhomogeneous field and temperature distribution, Wallace only manufactured small samples of 50 × 50 mm2 Another approach to handle the problem was chosen by Mooteri and Rao; they rotated their GFRP samples to reach a homogenous energy input [27,29]. This paper, investigates the question whether an industrial-scale microwave applicator and vacuum-assisted half-mold process (Figure 1) does produce continuous glass fiber-reinforced plastic samples of the same quality as oven-processed ones. To answer this question, a Vötsch Hephaistos 180/200 microwave applicator that is designed for industrial applications is used and slightly adapted. The latter is done according to DIN EN ISO 14130 [45]
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