JP5138553B2 - Composite product manufacturing method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a composite product manufacturing method applied to a composite product such as a large composite product such as a windmill blade or an aircraft part.

  Conventionally, as a composite material manufacturing method for manufacturing a large composite product such as a windmill blade, a nacelle cover, an aircraft part, and a fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) ship, a vacuum impregnation method ( A manufacturing method called VaRTM) is widely used. This vacuum impregnation method is characterized by the fact that large-scale equipment such as an autoclave (pressure cooker) is not required, that large-sized structures are easily formed integrally, and that the working environment is good with little volatilization of organic solvents. Have.

In a conventional vacuum impregnation method, a reinforcing fiber base placed on a mold is enclosed in a vacuum bag. Thereafter, the inside of the vacuum bag is vacuumed and liquid resin is injected into the vacuum bag that has been evacuated. This liquid resin is cured in a state of being impregnated into the reinforcing fiber base material.
In such a vacuum impregnation method, a disposable nylon vacuum bag film or a reusable silicon bag (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2) is used as a vacuum bag for forming a vacuum forming space.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-042056 Japanese National Patent Publication No. 10-504501

As described above, in the vacuum impregnation method that is widely used as a method for producing a large composite product, a method of using a reusable silicon bag instead of a vacuum bag film that is difficult for economical use because it is disposable. Has been put to practical use.
However, since the conventional silicon bag has a thick plate and a cloudy color, the following problems have been pointed out.

1) Since the silicon bag is a thick plate, it is heavy. For this reason, the larger the product is, the larger and heavier the silicon bag becomes, and the handling becomes difficult.
2) When a heavy silicon bag is spread on a reinforcing fiber base such as a glass fiber substrate, it is dragged on the fiber. For this reason, there is a possibility that the fiber of the reinforcing fiber base may be displaced from a predetermined position, and defects such as wrinkling of the fiber are likely to occur.
3) Since it is difficult to visually check the flow and impregnation state of the resin in the cloudy white silicon bag, it becomes difficult to find an unimpregnated defect, which causes a reduction in quality. In addition, since the disposable vacuum bag film is transparent, the impregnation state of the resin into the glass fiber can be visually confirmed. Therefore, when an unimpregnated defect occurs, repair work can be performed immediately.

Thus, since the conventional silicon bag has a thick plate and a cloudy color, it has a problem in workability at the time of manufacture and product quality.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a composite product manufacturing method capable of improving workability and quality while maintaining economics of a silicon bag. There is to do.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention employs the following means.
The composite product manufacturing method according to the present invention includes a sealing step in which a reinforcing fiber base placed on a mold is enclosed in a sheet material, and a molding formed between the mold and the sheet material. A vacuum suction step for evacuating from the space, an injection / impregnation step for injecting a liquid resin into the vacuumed molding space and impregnating the reinforcing fiber substrate, and a liquid resin impregnating the reinforcing fiber substrate In a composite product manufacturing method for manufacturing a composite product using a vacuum impregnation method comprising curing a resin, a sheet is obtained by obtaining strength by reinforcing fibers disposed inside the sheet as the sheet- like material. A transparent silicon sheet having a thickness reduced to 0.4 to 2.0 mm is used.

According to such a composite material manufacturing method, as the sheet material, a transparent silicon sheet obtained by obtaining strength with a reinforcing fiber disposed inside the sheet and reducing the thickness to 0.4 to 2.0 mm is used. Therefore, the sheet-like material forming the forming space is lightened by reducing the weight of the entire sheet, and the state of the liquid resin flowing inside is visualized by making it transparent. Since the silicon sheet used here is thinned by obtaining strength with the reinforcing fibers arranged inside the sheet, the strength of the thin silicon sheet can be reliably increased and thinned.

According to the present invention described above, handling is facilitated by reducing the weight of the entire sheet by reducing the thickness of the sheet-like material forming the forming space. Furthermore, since the state of the liquid resin flowing inside is visualized by making the sheet material forming the molding space transparent, it becomes easy to visually confirm the flow and impregnation of the resin.
As a result, according to the composite product manufacturing method of the present invention, it is possible to improve the workability at the time of manufacturing the composite product while maintaining the economic efficiency of the silicon bag, and further, wrinkles on the unimpregnated defects and fibers. There is a remarkable effect that the quality of the composite product can be improved by preventing defects such as occurrence.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of a composite product manufacturing method according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing a vacuum impregnation method (VaRTM) adopted when manufacturing a composite material product, in which 1 is a molding die (tool), 2 is a reinforcing fiber substrate, and 3 is peeling A sheet (peel ply), 4 is a mesh sheet for resin diffusion (pass media), and 10 is a thin transparent silicon sheet (sheet-like material).
In FIG. 1, reference numeral 5 in the drawing is an inlet for injecting the liquid resin into the reinforcing fiber base 2 in the molding space, 6 is a seal for preventing the liquid resin from flowing out, and 7 is a vacuum from the molding space. A suction port for drawing, 8 is a seal for preventing inflow of air due to evacuation, and 9 is a liquid resin injected into the molding space 2.

Such a vacuum impregnation method is a composite product manufacturing method that is employed when manufacturing particularly large composite products such as windmill blades, nacelle covers, aircraft parts, and FRP ships.
The composite material product manufacturing method of the present invention includes a sealing step in which a reinforcing fiber substrate 2 placed on a mold 1 is enclosed in a silicon sheet 10 and a mold formed between the mold 1 and the silicon sheet 10. A vacuum suction process for evacuating the space, an injection / impregnation process for injecting the liquid resin 9 into the vacuum forming space and impregnating the reinforcing fiber base 2, and a liquid resin impregnating the reinforcing fiber base 2 And a resin curing step for curing 9.

  In the sealing step, the reinforcing fiber substrate 2 is placed on the mold 1 to facilitate the peeling after the molding is completed, and the resin diffusion network sheet 4 for promoting the diffusion of the liquid resin 9. Are covered on the upper surface and the side surface of the reinforcing fiber base 2. Thereafter, a silicon sheet 10 is placed on the reinforcing fiber base 2, the release sheet 3, and the resin diffusion netting sheet 4, and the injection port 5 is attached to one side end portion with the seal 6 interposed therebetween, and the other side. The suction port 7 is attached with a seal 8 interposed at the end. As a result, a molding space is formed between the mold 1 and the silicon sheet 10 in which the reinforcing fiber base 2 is sealed in the silicon sheet 10 and sealed with the seals 6 and 8.

Here, the silicon sheet 10 used as the silicon bag is a thin transparent silicon sheet. The silicon sheet 10 is generally called silicone rubber. Here, when a suitable specific example is given about silicone rubber, there exists a brand name "KE555-V" of Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. and its equivalent, for example.
In the present invention, a thin transparent silicone rubber having a thickness t of 0.4 to 2.0 mm shown in FIG. In addition, since the plate | board thickness of the silicon bag currently used is about 2-5 mm, the silicon sheet 10 becomes quite thin and light.

In this way, when the thin transparent silicon sheet 10 is used as a sheet-like material, a molding space is formed by the silicon sheet 10 in which the weight of the entire sheet is reduced by the thinning, and the inside flows by the transparency. The state of the liquid resin 9 is visualized. That is, the thin transparent silicon sheet 10 functions as a silicon bag for forming a molding space.
Further, since the thin silicon sheet 10 is easily deformed, the thin silicon sheet 10 is well adapted to the irregularities inside the silicon bag. Therefore, the resin reservoir of the liquid resin 9 is reduced, contributing to quality improvement.

And in order to increase the intensity | strength of the silicon sheet 10, as shown in FIG.2 and FIG.3, the reinforcing fiber 12 is arrange | positioned inside the sheet | seat of the silicon sheet raw material 11, for example. The reinforcing fiber 12 used here is preferably a glass fiber stranded wire having a diameter of about 0.1 to 1.0 mm, for example. The pitch P of the reinforcing fibers 12 arranged inside the silicon sheet material 11 is preferably about 1.0 to 10 mm in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction.
As described above, the silicon sheet 10 in which the reinforcing fibers 12 are arranged inside the sheet can obtain strength against breakage or the like from the tensile strength of the reinforcing fibers 12, and thus can be easily thinned. In other words, since the reinforcing fiber 12 surely increases the breaking strength of the thin silicon sheet 10, it can be made thinner than in the case where the reinforcing fiber 12 is not provided.

After the above-described sealing process, a vacuum suction process is performed in which a vacuum is drawn from the molding space formed between the mold 1 and the silicon sheet 10. In this vacuum suction step, the molding space is evacuated by vacuuming from the suction port 7, and in the next injection / impregnation step, the liquid resin 9 is injected from the injection port 6 into the vacuumed molding space. The liquid resin 9 is impregnated over the entire reinforcing fiber base 2, and the liquid resin 9 impregnated in the reinforcing fiber base 2 is cured in the next resin curing step.
In the composite product thus manufactured, the reinforcing fiber substrate 2 obtained by curing the impregnated liquid resin 9 is taken out of the silicon sheet 10, and the release sheet 3 and the resin diffusion network sheet 4 are peeled and removed. The In addition, the silicon sheet 10 used here is reused when manufacturing the next composite material product.

Therefore, according to the composite material manufacturing method described above, the thickness of the silicon sheet 10 that forms the forming space is reduced in proportion to the thickness t, and the silicon sheet 10 that becomes a silicon bag during the manufacturing operation is reduced. Handling becomes easy.
Further, since the state of the liquid resin flowing inside the molding space is visualized by making the silicon sheet 10 forming the molding space transparent, it is easy to visually check the resin flow and impregnation from the outside of the silicon sheet 10. This improves the workability of defect collection. That is, since the remaining state of the bubbles when the liquid resin 9 is finally impregnated can be confirmed, the bubble discharging operation can be accurately performed to improve the quality of the composite material product.
In addition, since the transparent silicon sheet 10 can monitor the impregnation state in the same manner as a conventional vacuum bag film that is disposable, accurate data can be obtained when the impregnation rate of the liquid resin 9 is measured.

  As a result, while maintaining the economic efficiency of the silicon bag using the silicon sheet 10, that is, the economic efficiency of being reusable, it is possible to improve the workability at the time of manufacturing the composite material product. The quality of the composite product can be improved by preventing defects such as defects and wrinkles in the fibers.

  By the way, about the insertion amount of the reinforced fiber 12 mentioned above, if the pitch P is narrowed and increased (densely), the thickness t of the silicon sheet material 11 can be further reduced. However, if the insertion amount of the reinforcing fiber 12 is increased, the transparent silicon sheet material 11 is prevented from being visualized. Therefore, the thickness t and the insertion amount and the insertion form of the reinforcing fiber 12 are required for the size of the product to be molded and required. It should be selected as appropriate according to the degree of visualization. Here, the insertion form of the reinforcing fibers 12 refers to the type of reinforcing fibers 12 to be used, the line diameter, the pitch P between the reinforcing fibers, the arrangement direction of the reinforcing fibers 12 (vertical, horizontal, diagonal, etc.), and the thickness t direction. The number of fibers to be arranged is one or a plurality of combinations selected.

That is, the reinforcing fiber 12 used in the silicon sheet 10 is not limited to the glass fiber described above, but various conditions (for example, the size of the composite material product, the thickness t of the silicon sheet material 11 to be aimed at, etc.) ), A fiber material having a high tensile strength can be appropriately selected.
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be modified as appropriate without departing from the scope of the invention.

It is explanatory drawing which shows the manufacture condition which shows one Embodiment about the manufacturing method of the composite material resin product which concerns on this invention. It is a top view of the silicon sheet used in FIG. It is sectional drawing of the silicon sheet shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Mold 2 Reinforcement fiber base material 9 Liquid resin 10 Silicon sheet (sheet-like material)
11 Silicon sheet material 12 Reinforcing fiber

Claims (1)

A sealing step of encapsulating the reinforcing fiber base placed on the mold in a sheet-like material;
A vacuum suction step of evacuating from the molding space formed between the mold and the sheet-like material;
An injection / impregnation step for injecting a liquid resin into the vacuumed molding space and impregnating the reinforcing fiber substrate;
A resin curing step of curing the liquid resin impregnated in the reinforcing fiber base;
In a composite product manufacturing method of manufacturing a composite product using a vacuum impregnation method comprising:
Production of a composite material product characterized in that a transparent silicon sheet having a thickness of 0.4 to 2.0 mm is obtained by using a reinforcing fiber disposed inside the sheet as the sheet material. Method.

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