DESIGNING WITH ADVANCE MATERIAL

Lab Report - Important industrial methods of FRP composite fabrication

Submitted by: -
PRASHANT KUMAR CHOUHAN
ENTRY No.- 2019MEM2761
Introduction
Advancement in manufacturing technologies help industries to produce materials with better properties
like rigidity, toughness, ductility, malleability, hardness and at low price. There is lot of material available
in market but composite material provides a variety of properties. Composite material made from two or
more materials which can have different physical and chemical properties and produced material have
different properties than their constituents. These materials have wide applications in mechanical,
automobile, construction, aerospace and marine industries. Composite materials have two constituents
one is matrices and other is reinforcements.

Composite Material
Constituents

Matrices Reinforcements

Organic Inorganic Fiber Particle Cores Semi crystalline polymer

Most commonly used organic matrices are polymers which generally used for FRP and some common
examples are carbon fiber, fiberglass and Kevlar. Polyester resin also used for some marine application
but it is ultra violet sensitive and have tendency to decay with the time. Epoxy resin commonly used as
matrices in aerospace industry. Some inorganic material like concrete, metals, ceramics are used in
structures and constructional works.
Reinforcement enhance the rigidity and other properties of material. FRP can be categorized as short fiber
reinforced material and continuous fiber reinforced materials. Some commonly used fibers are glass fiber,
carbon fiber and cellulose. Particle reinforcement add hardening effect to composite as well as improve
the elastic constant of material. It also restricts dislocation movement and crack progress. Some
commonly used cores for reinforcements are PVC, polyethylene, polystyrene and honey comb. Semi
crystalline polymer used as reinforcements in less stiff and amorphous phase so that its crystalline phase
improves its elastic modulus.
Fabrication techniques are complicated process as lot of steps are involved in it and it depends on lot of
factor like product geometry, layering sequence, production quantity, tools required for processing,
selection of fiber for processing conditions other than these factors it should be economic.
Manufacturing Technologies
There is lot of processes are available to manufacture fiber reinforced polymer composite material.
Selection of process depends on lot of factors.
1. Geometry Shape: Sometimes it is required to produce complex geometry and assembling takes
place later for sub parts therefor process should have technology to produce complex components
with high accuracy.
2. Production quantity: Sometimes production scale is key factor for industries like automobile and
aerospace. Processes is finalized as per yearly or monthly requirements of products
3. Tools: Tools play important role when dimension are critical for the product and products
required dimensional accuracy then it is very important to select process with tools which are
compatible to the conditions.
Manufacturing Techniques

Open mold process

This is low cost and effective method in which single sided mold is used as acting surface. Various type
of part sizes and design can be produced with this method. This process is generally used to produce the
material or parts which cannot be produced or not justifiable to produce in automated process.
Hand Layup method:
This is one of the simplest open mold shaping method and labor intensive method. In this method firstly
mold is cleaned with release agent then resin will be applied on molding surface when resin gets settled
fiber reinforcements are placed with the hands and each layer is rolled and impregnated with the resin.
After curing part can be removed from the mold. It requires single sided tools which are low in cost and
equipment cost is also low for this. Material with different design can be produced and this process is
ideal for low volume while cycle time of production for this process is large and same time due to manual
involvement it has inconsistency in part thickness.

Spray Layup method:

This is the open molding composite fabrication method in which pneumatic gun is used to spray short
strand of fiber on to reusable mold. Resin and fiber can be applied separately or together using pneumatic
gun. To compact the laminate, roll out the spray up. As per requirement core material can be added then
part can be cured and removed from the mold after cooling. This process used for medium production of
parts like duct air, boat hull, storage tank etc.
Generally, glass fiber used as reinforcement material and other than this carbon and Kevlar can also be
used. Polyester and vinyl ester are commonly used resin in this process. Calcium carbonates and
aluminum trihydrates used as filler with resin.
In this process firstly release agent applied to mold surface then gelcoat applied and left it for few hours
for hardening. Fiber resin mixture then deposited on mold surface using spray gun. Brushes and rollers
used to remove trapped air after completion of spraying of fiber. Curing of resin takes place at room
temperature and time taken for curing depends on its properties. Part can be removed from mold after
curing.
This process has some beneficial parts as spraying process can be automated, tooling cost is low and ideal
process for low quantity production. This method of composite fabrication also has limitation like manual
application involves more variation in thickness and it has higher cycle time.
Vacuum bag molding:
This is the process in which vacuum consolidation increase properties of open mold laminates. In this
process material firstly placed on open mold. It is then covered with synthetic fiber with fine weave
which can be peeled off after molding and breather fabric provide path for air to escape and works as
absorber for excessive bleeding resin. Entire layup gets laid up with vacuum bag and after sealing the
edge connection given to vacuum pump. This vacuum pump removes all air from the sealed system
between mold and vacuum bag. This process is often takes places with curing of resin. After completion
of curing process vacuum pump connection removed from the system, then peel ply, breather fabric
removed and now part is ready and can separates from mold.
This process can be used to manufacture large components or parts of machine like turbine blades and
same time due to low pressure tooling cost also get reduced. This process generates lots of waste
consumables like peel ply and breather fabric. It does not have good surface finish on the vacuum bag
side.

Pressure Bag Molding:

This method is exactly similar to vacuum bag molding method. In this process a female and male mold is
used. Fiber with sufficient resin (for sticking) are place in female mold after brushing the measured
amount of resin mold is clamped to machine which contain male mold. Heated compressed air flows in
male membrane so membrane gets inflated and force excess resin to flow out with the trapped air.
Pressurized steam can be used here for curing which accelerate the curing process.
It is used to manufacture sonar domes, antenna housings, aircraft fairing etc.

Thermal Expansion Molding:

In this method prepag layer places on metal mold and wrapped around by rubber block. When entire
system heated rubber expand more than the metal which creates pressure on laminate.

Closed Mold Process:

This is process in which fiber and resin inside to sided mold and usually this is automated process which
required special tools which increase its tooling cost. Parts manufactured using this process are having
good finish and due to automation production rate is much higher in comparison to open mold processes.
These process produced parts are dimensionally more accurate.

Compression molding process:

This is process in which materials are placed between two molds. During process thermoplastic material
is preheated while thermoset material processed cold, after positioning of material press get closed and
curing gets started under high temperature which actually accelerate curing process. After cure, mold
open and part removes.
This process can produce parts with excellent surface finish. High pressure helps to achieve high fraction
if fiber volume which will improve part performance. Through this process, parts with non-uniform
thickness is difficult to manufacture.

Transfer Molding process:

This is closed mold process in which resin is injected under pressure into the mold and high performance
composite parts produced in medium volumes. Dry fiber inserts into mold which are made of matched
metal tools. After closing the mold and shutting down the clamp, resin pumps into the cavity. Tool gets
heated during curing process and tools remove after completion of curing.
This process manufacture parts with good surface finish. Cycle time depends on size of part and for this
process due to high pressure and reactive resin it is very small. It achieves high fiber volume fraction due
to high clamping force which enhance parts performance. This process has high tooling cost and it is
difficult to produce undercut parts.
Injection Molding Process:
This process is used for mass production of thermoplastics and also can be used for thermosetting
polymer. Due to mass production, cost of production is low. Injection molding is of two types
conventional injection molding and reinforced reaction injection molding.
In conventional injection molding fiber gets aligned during injection into the mold cavity when pass
through nozzle and this process is used for both thermoplastics and thermosetting polymer.
In reinforced reaction injection molding process, two or more resins mixed together and injected into the
mold cavity where curing and cooling takes place due to chemical reactions. This process used to produce
automobile body parts.