Processing and characterization of high-performance thermoplastic composites manufactured by laser-assisted automated fiber placement in-situ consolidation and hot-press

Abstract

Due to the short dwell time of processing temperature and pressure, the quality of the composite manufactured by AFP was not equal to the traditional processing method like autoclave or hot-press. Deeply understanding the mechanism of differences was conducive to improving the performance of the composite manufactured by AFP. In this study, the properties of high-performance carbon fiber reinforced polyphenylene sulfide (CF/PPS) thermoplastic composites manufactured by laser-assisted automated fiber placement (LAFP) in-situ consolidation and hot-press was characterized and compared. The temperature history of LAFP in situ consolidation indicated that the heating and cooling process occurred during a few seconds. And the crystallinity was only 21.6% for the laminate from LATP, while the void content was 2.75%. Due to the low crystallinity, high void content and low interlaminar bonding, the ILSS of the laminate from LAFP in situ consolidation was 34.9% lower than that of hot-press. However, the mode Ⅰ fracture toughness was 103.7% higher than hot-press.