Monitoring of the vacuum infusion process by integrated RFID transponder

Abstract

To ensure the competitiveness of Germany in the manufacturing of composite parts, greater resource efficiency and higher standards of quality are needed. The process of vacuum infusion is used by many companies to produce a great variety of composite parts for markets like shipbuilding, wind energy and many more. Often, those parts have a complex structure requiring a great amount of skill and experience to produce at a high quality. Therefore, the development process often requires several experimental trials before sufficient quality is reached, using up material and time. By using RFID (radio frequency identification) transponders as sensors, the manufacturing process can be monitored, and less reject is produced. When using RFID transponders as sensors, they can then be used to track the component through further assembly steps and as a storage device during the lifetime of the finished product, enabling a simultaneous way of protecting against product piracy and structural health monitoring.The correlation between the RFID signal and the resin state in the fiber layup is shown for several systems. The results show that RFID transponders can be used for both glass and carbon fiber parts to monitor the production process. This will allow a more efficient production of composite parts, shortening process duration and saving resources. The monitoring of the resin flow and cure in the fiber layers underneath an RFID transponder allows the manufacturer to gain information about the state of the process during production. Resin profiles in a thick fiber layup were successfully tracked using an RFID transponder placed above them. The monitoring of the resin in the fiber layers allows the manufacturer to gain information about the state of the process during production.Summarizing the results of our research, the use of RFID transponders as sensors allows an efficient and process friendly monitoring of the resin behavior during vacuum infusion, and the transponders can be further used in logistics. The tracking of the resin behavior beneath a sensor opens up possibilities for further optimization of the part quality.