Filament Winding Thermoplastic Composite Cylinders with On-Line Impregnation

摘要

Thermoplastic matrices compared to thermoset matrices offer advantages like higher fracture toughness, unlimited shelf life, elimination of post curing cycles, recyclability and reduction of volatile solvent. The principle of the current thermoplastic filament winding technique is to apply heat and pressure to consolidate preimpregnated fibres (tapes). Nevertheless the material needed for this kind of tape winding is still very expensive. To reduce the manufacturing costs but to profit from the advantages of the thermoplastic matrices a new filament winding technique has been evolved. The novelty is to impregnate and consolidate the fibres and the thermoplastic matrix simultaneously during winding. The new equipment consists of the components filament winding machine, extrusion plant and impregnation appliance. The aim of this project is to achieve nearly the same composite quality and winding speed as with tape winding. A special field of application will be the reinforcement of composite cylinders. First winding trials prove the feasibility of this new challenging technique.