INDUSTRIAL DIELECTRIC CURE MONITORING AND ITS APPLICATION TO OUT-OF-AUTOCLAVE CURE MONITORING AND CONTROL

摘要

Cure monitoring in the composites manufacturing industry answers to the need of accurateprediction and optimization of the cure process that takes place in “optically inaccessible”environments such as closed moulds and ovens. Cure monitoring can also provide curecertification data for quality assurance purposes.State of the art tool mounted dielectric sensors have been developed by INASCO with an eye toaccuracy, durability in industrial environment and reproducibility. The sensors are interrogatedby the DiAMon Plus? cure and flow monitoring platform, which has been developedspecifically for industrial use.In this paper, the steps that are required in order to arrive from the dielectric measurement to amaterial state will be presented. Furthermore, the utilisation of the material state in a qualityassessment system for the out-of-autoclave composite part manufacturing will be analyzed.Finally, the possibilities for cure induced process control will be discussed.