6 - Composites manufacturing – thermoplastics

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Publisher Summary Thermoplastic composites offer increased recyclability and can be post-formed or reprocessed by the application of heat and pressure. A large range of tough matrix materials is also available. The manufacture of components from textile thermoplastic composites requires a heating process, either directly before the final molding process, where an oven plus a cool tool is used (non-isothermal processing), or in a hot mould (isothermal processing). Heat transfer forms the principal boundary condition governing process cycle times, with a corresponding potential for lower conversion costs. These basic steps define the many processing techniques that can be used to transform different material forms into the final product, where considerable flexibility exists to heat and shape the textile composites. One limitation for manufacturing techniques that result from the continuous, well-ordered, and close-packed fiber architectures is that these materials do not flow in the same way as a fiber suspension to fill a tool, but must instead be deformed by draping mechanisms. However, this limitation notwithstanding, a wide variety of both materials and processing techniques have been developed for both niche applications and components produced at high volumes. This chapter provides an overview of the impregnation and consolidation processes for thermoplastics that have driven both materials development and the choice of final conversion process. It presents a summary of thermoplastic composite pre-impregnation manufacturing routes and a review of final conversion processes for textile thermoplastic composites. The chapter also reviews forthcoming processing techniques for hybrid textile composite structures.