Title: Manufacturing Evaluation of Braided Carbon Fiber Thermoplastic Tape Preforms

Authors: Jean-Philippe Canart, Joe Spangler, and Alfonso Lopez

DOI: 10.33599/nasampe/s.22.0778

Abstract: Closed profile braided composite preforms are an ideal solution for rapid and reliable manufacturing of structural frames and shells. In this work, braided preforms are manufactured from high-performance carbon fiber – PEEK thermoplastic slit tape and used to manufacture tapered cylindrical parts. The fabrication of components using braided preforms may require less manual labor and lower capital expenditure than parts produced from more traditional thermoplastic composite processes. This paper will walk through the steps to produce the braided parts used to study the process feasibility and robustness. The impact of component length and geometry on part quality will be investigated using out-of-autoclave consolidation. Part quality was evaluated through surface inspection, fiber orientation measurement, as well as micro-structure quality evaluation. The prototype parts demonstrate that the process can be easily scaled up to rapid and economical full-scale manufacturing using out-of-autoclave consolidation of thermoplastic composites.

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Conference: SAMPE 2022

Publication Date: 2022/05/23

SKU: TP22-0000000778

Pages: 9

Price: $18.00