Using RFID to Monitor the Curing of Aramid Fiber Reinforced Polymers

Abstract

In the production of fiber-reinforced composites, an increase of resource efficiency is necessary to ensure the future competitiveness of this production technology in Germany. Therefore, wireless sensor methods are currently being researched to monitor the curing of fiber-reinforced composites online and in situ during the production process. At the same time, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is being used to identify fiber-reinforced composite components in production and logistics. In this paper, we present results to combine these two approaches to monitor the cure of aramid and carbon fiber-reinforced composites in situ and online using RFID technology. By experimenting, we have determined a relationship between the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) of the RFID transponder integrated into an aramid fiber-reinforced composite component and the curing of this component. As comparison method for the verification of the curing processes, we used the dielectric analysis as a well-known method for cure monitoring. The results show that it is possible to monitor the process of aramid fiber-reinforced composites through the RSSI value. However, the so-called curing transponder does not work with carbon fiber-reinforced composites. To complement the research, we proposed a surface modification method for RFID tags, based on a preliminary study on the surface activation of polymer films using oxygen plasma.