MODULE-5

Fabrication Process:
Hand layup Process, Vacuum Bagging Process,Filament winding,
Pultrusion, Pulforming, Autoclave Process, Extrusion process, Injection
Moulding Process, Thermo-forming process.

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Post Processing of Composites: Adhesive bonding, drilling, cutting
processes, Netting analysis.

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Hand layup Process:

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Materials Options:
Resins: Any, e.g. epoxy, polyester, vinylester, phenolic
Fibres: Any, although heavy aramid fabrics can be hard to wet-out by hand.

Typical Applications:
Standard wind-turbine blades, production boats, architectural mouldings.

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Advantages:

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Simple principles to teach.
Low cost tooling, if room-temperature cure resins are used.

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Higher fibre contents and longer fibres than with spray lay-up.

Disadvantages: VT
Resin mixing, laminate resin contents and laminate quality are very dependent on the skills of
laminators.
Health and safety considerations of resins.
Resins need to be low in viscosity to be workable by hand.
Spray Up Process:

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Material Options:
Resins: Primarily polyester
Fibres: Glass roving only

Typical Applications:
Simple enclosures, lightly loaded structural panels, e.g. caravan bodies, truck fairings,
bathtubs, shower trays, some small dinghies.

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Advantages:
Widely used for many years.

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Low cost way of quickly depositing fibre and resin.

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Low cost tooling.
Disadvantages:
Only short fibres are incorporated.
Resins need to be low in viscosity to be sprayable.
Limiting airborne styrene concentrations to legislated levels is becoming increasingly
difficult.
Vacuum Bagging Process

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Materials Options:
Resins: Primarily epoxy and phenolic,Polyesters and vinylesters.
Fibres: The consolidation pressures mean that a variety of heavy fabrics can be wet-out.

Typical Applications:
Large, one-off cruising boats, racecar components, core-bonding in production boats.

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Advantages:

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Higher fibre content laminates can usually be achieved
Lower void contents are achieved than with wet lay-up.

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Better fibre wet-out due to pressure and resin flow

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Health and safety: The vacuum bag reduces the amount of volatiles emitted during cure.

Disadvantages:
The extra process adds cost both in labour and in disposable bagging materials.
A higher level of skill is required by the operators.
Mixing and control of resin content still largely determined by operator skill.
Autoclave Process:

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Typical Applications:
Aircraft structural components (e.g. wings and tail sections), F1 racing cars, sporting goods
such as tennis racquets and skis.

Advantages:
High fibre contents can be safely achieved.
The materials have excellent health and safety characteristics and are clean to work with.

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Fibre cost is minimized in unidirectional

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Potential for automation and labour saving.

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Disadvantages:

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Materials cost is higher for pre-impregnated fabrics.
Autoclaves are expensive, slow to operate and limited in size.
Tooling needs to be able to withstand the process temperatures involved.
Core materials need to be able to withstand the process temperatures and pressures.
Filament winding:

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Advantage:
• High strength to weight ratio is possible to achieve with this process.
• High degree of uniformity in fiber distribution, orientation and placement.
• Labor involvement is minimal as it is an automated process.
• Filament winding method is suitable to process composite parts requiring
precise tolerances.

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• Fiber orientation in a specific direction is possible in this process.

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Disadvantage:

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• Capital investment is relatively high.
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• Very precise control over the mechanism is required for uniform distribution
and orientation of fiber.
• Composite product configuration be such that it should facilitate in mandrel
extraction.
Application:
• Composite products like storage tanks, pipelines, vessels, gas cylinders, fishing
rods, missile cases, rocket motor cases, ducting cement mixture, sail boat mast,
aircraft fuselages and golf club shafts are very common to be developed with this
method.

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• Now, the application spectrum of filament winding has expanded to complex

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engineered non- spherical and non-cylindrical composite products with the use of
sophisticated machinery and software.

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PULTRUSION PROCESS:

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➢ Applications:
• Products like solid rods, tubing and long flat sheets are easily fabricated with pultrusion
process.
• Simple and constant cross sectional structural sections such as channels, angled and flanged
beams.

➢ Advantages of pultrusion system:

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• This is a low-cost automated system

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• The surface finish of the product is high as compared to other composite processing methods.
• The production rate is high as it is a continuous production process.

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• It is a straight forward and simple process which does not require specific labour skills.

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• Easy handling and low maintenance.

➢ Disadvantages of pultrusion system:

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clamps them in a mould for curing.

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• This makes the process non-continuous, but accommodating of small

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changes in cross-section.
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❖ PROCESSING OF POLYMER MATRIX COMPOSITES: THERMOPLASTIC
POLYMERS:
➢ EXTRUSION
➢ PROCESS:

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INJECTION MOLDING:

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 Advantages
• Higher production rate
• Close tolerances on small intricate parts
• Minimum wastage of material
Complex geometry can be easily produced

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Disadvantages
Tooling cost higher

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• High setup cost
• Large undercuts can’t be formed

Applications
This process can be used to manufacture thin-walled plastic housing products which require many ribs and
bosses on the interior surfaces.
THERMOFORMING:

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 Advantages:
• Extremely adaptive to design requirement
• Rapid prototype development
• Low initial setup costs
• Low production costs
• Less thermal stresses than injection molding and compression molding
• Good dimensional stability

Disadvantages:
• Poor surface finish

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• Parts may have non-uniform wall thickness.
• All parts need to be trimmed

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• Ribs and bosses cannot be molded easily
Limited number of materials can be used

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• Very thick plastic sheets can’t be formed

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Applications

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Thermoforming process is used for variety of applications, for example, food packaging, automotive parts, trays, building
products and aircraft windscreens.
➢ Post Processing of Composites:
➢ Adhesive bonding processes

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 Drilling Process

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Cutting Process

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