Title: Rapid High Performance Molding of Structural Thermoplastic Composite Parts

Authors: Justin J. Schell, Steven M. Shewchuk, David Leach, Trevor McCrea, Ned Abrams, Richard Postera, and Gail L. Hahn

DOI: 10.33599/nasampe/s.19.1393

Abstract: Manufacturing small composite parts that are relatively insensitive to part and material mix is challenging. When thermoplastic material is introduced to that scenario, creativity is needed for the tooling approach and the processing capabilities of the work cell. The high processing temperatures of thermoplastics limit the available tooling materials while increasing the need to consider the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the tooling material. The thermoplastic material itself has an order of magnitude higher CTE out-of-plane versus in-plane. This CTE mismatch of the thermoplastic material to the tooling material causes it to shrink away from tooling faces during the critical crystallization temperature and leads to a lack of uniform pressure that may impact the part consolidation quality. High processing temperatures compared to other materials also affects cycle time, tool face temperature uniformity, and de-mold temperature. This paper addresses the challenges, the mitigation plan and tooling design approach to overcome CTE shrinkage, pressure application normal to the part surface, and temperature uniformity across the part to ensure successful and rapid part fabrication.

References: 1. Hahn, G.L. and Tsotsis, T.K. Rapid High Performance Molding (RAPM) for Small Parts.” SAMPE 2019 Conference Proceedings. Charlotte, NC, May 20-23, 2019. 2. Shewchuk, S.M., Halford, B., Matlack, M.P., Sharpe, A., Massey, P. “Development of Scalable Dynamic Control Architectures for Flexible Composites Manufacturing Work Cells.” SAMPE 2019 Conference Proceedings. Charlotte, NC, May 20-23, 2019.

Conference: SAMPE 2019 - Charlotte, NC

Publication Date: 2019/05/20

SKU: TP19--1393

Pages: 19

Price: FREE