Relationship Between the Process Parameters and Resin Content of a Glass/Epoxy Prepreg Produced by Dipping Method

Abstract

The properties of prepregs are characterized in terms of their volatile content, resin content, the degree of pre-cure, void content, tack and flow ability. Resin content is one of the most important properties of prepregs so that its changing will result in altered properties such as, tack and resin flow. In order to monitor the resin content, a quantitative relation to the processing parameters such as line speed, viscosity and distance between the resin up taking rollers have to be determined. In this study, a tri-axial E-glass fabric with the areal weight of 1025 g/m2 and an epoxy resin (Epon 828) were used to produce the prepreg by the dipping method. In the theoretical part of this work, the free coating is studied and as a result the thickness layer of the coating resin through the resin bath is calculated by Landau-Levich model. In continuation, the achieved thickness was considered as a feed for the calendering process. Using the momentum equation for the passing impregnated fibres through the extra resin uptake rollers, the relation between the internal resin layer thickness and final coating resin layer thickness was achieved in an integral equation form. In order to solve this integral equation, MAPLE software was applied. The theoretical results were in good agreement with the experimental data and showed that the resin content increased linearly with increasing the distance between rollers, the radius and roller angular velocity. In contrast, the resin content decreased with increasing the line speed. According to our calculations, the effect of the resin viscosity variation on the resin content was negligibly small.

Keywords

• prepreg
• resin content
• calendering
• free coating
• numerical solution
• techniques