Manufacturing Technologies of Polymer Composites—A Review

Abstract

Polymer composites have been widely used in the aviation, aerospace, automotive, military, medical, agricultural and industrial fields due to their excellent mechanical properties, heat resistance, flame retardant, impact resistance and corrosion resistance. In general, their manufacturing process is one of the key factors affecting the life cycle of polymer composites. This article provides an overview of typical manufacturing technologies, including surface coating, additive manufacturing and magnetic pulse powder compaction, which are normally used to reduce the failure behaviour of polymer composites in service so that the quality of composite products can be improved. Advanced polymer composite powder manufacturing processes, the processing mechanism and experimental methods are described, and the influence of different manufacturing processes on the moulding quality is revealed. This investigation can provide suitable methods for the selection of manufacturing technology to improve the quality of polymer composite products.

Keywords

• polymer composites
• manufacturing process
• process mechanism
• surface coating
• additive manufacturing
• magnetic pulse powder compaction