Manufacturing of Braided Thermoplastic Composites with Carbon/Nylon Commingled Fibers

摘要

Composite materials with thermoplastic matrices are attractive due to their numerous advantages over thermoset materials. They exhibit an outstanding chemical and environmental resistance, and great mechanical properties. Their use reduces the total cost of the product's life cycle by their faster processing time, easier recyclability, unlimited storage time, and post-forming and welding ability. However, there is limited experimental data available at the present time. Also, the high viscosity at melt implies a difficult impregnation of the reinforcing network of fibers. Among the various solutions to this problem, commingled fibers, which are a blend of reinforcement and matrix filaments within the tow, provide a promising avenue. This study first characterizes the architecture of a Carbon/Nylon commingled yarn by microscopy. Then, braiding technology was used to manufacture tubes at various braiding angles. Laminates were then made by compression molding with preforms extracted from the braids. The consolidation quality is examined using constituent content method and microscopy. Tensile and flexural properties are obtained for a wide range of angles. Finally, the tensile modulus is predicted using classical lamination theory.