THE EMERGENCE OF THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITEMATERIALS THROUGH COST-EFFECTIVE MOLDINGTECHNIQUES

摘要

When thermoplastic composite (TPC) materials first appeared, a great effort was made to allowrnthe materials to be 3 dimensionally formed by existing molding processes, such as compressionrnand injection molding. Evaluating the costs of these “high volume” molding processes, revealsrnan economical deficiency for thermoplastic composite parts with annual volumes ranging fromrn1,000 to even up to 100,000.rnAs TPC materials have started to mature and new materials of this type have become available,rnthe demand for more flexible and economical molding technology has arisen in order to allowrnthese materials to penetrate a wide range of markets.rnBy exploring the use of low pressure approaches such as diaphragms, bladders and otherrnthermoforming techniques in the molding process, technology has been implemented to formrn3-D TPC parts on an industrial level.rnThis paper will overview how applying these innovative molding techniques can allowrncustomers to have complex three dimensional parts while still taking advantage of the uniquernimpact and damage tolerance properties TPC materials offer.