Lecture Four
Manufacturing of POLYMER MATRIX
COMPOSITE
D. Rasha Afify
Schoubra faculty of Engineering
Banha Univerisity
1
MANUFACTURING OF POLYMER-MATRIX
COMPOSITES
Hand Lay-Up/Spray-Up
-Oldest and most commonly used manufacturing method
-Usually used to produce polyester or epoxy resin parts such as boat hulls, tanks
and vessels, pick-up truck
-The method is quite simple, the resin and reinforcement is placed against the
surface of an open (one sided) mold and allowed to cure or in the case of spray-up
the resin/reinforcement is sprayed onto the mold with a spray gun
-Often a gel coat is applied to the mold prior to
produce a better surface quality and protect the
composite from the elements
-A gel coat is a resin usually 0.4 to 0.7 mm thick,
commonly seen on the outer surface of smaller
boats
MANUFACTURING OF POLYMER-MATRIX COMPOSITES
Hand Lay-Up/Spray-Up
-The pros of this process include:
1. low initial start up cost,
2. easy to change mold/design possible (ie portable process)
-The cons include:
1. labor intensive, t
2. The quality of parts depends on operator’s skill and therefore
inconsistent, only one good side to the part
Hand lay-up
Hand lay-up
• Advantages:
– low cost tools
– versatile: wide range of products
• Disadvantages:
– time consuming
– easy to form air bubbles and disorientation of
fibers
– Inconsistency تناقض في الحجم
Spray method
Spray method
• Advantages:
– Continuous process
– Any materials can be used as mold.
– Error can be corrected by re-spraying.
• Disadvantages:
– Slow.
– inconsistency.
– No control of fiber orientation.
– Only one side finished.
– Environmental unfriendly.
Filament winding
Composite Production Methods
• Filament Winding
– Continuous reinforcing fibers are accurately positioned in a
predetermined pattern to form a hollow (usually cylindrical)
shape
– Fibers are fed through a resin bath to impregnate with
thermosetting resin
– Impregnated نقعfibers are continuously wound (typically
automatically) onto a mandrel
– After appropriate number of layers added, curing is carried out
either in an oven or at room temperature
– The mandrel is removed to give the final product
Filament winding products
• Compressed air tanks
• High-pressure CO2 tanks and bottles
• Rescue air tanks خزانات الهواء
• Sail boat masts صواري القوارب الشراعية
• Compressed Natural Gas tanks
• Defense/Aerospace systems
Filament winding
Filament winding
Vacuum bagging
• Process
Carbon fiber epoxy
Vacuum bagging
• Advantages:
– simple design
– any fiber/matrix combination
– ok with cheap mold material
– better quality for the cost
• Disadvantages:
– cannot be heated up too much
– low pressure
– slowest speed
– inconsistency
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