Fabrication of continuous carbon fiber reinforced polypropylene composites by injection compression molding with self-resistance electric heating

Abstract

Injection compression molding technique with self-resistance electric heating provides an effective way to fabricate continuous carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastics (cCFRTs) components, but it may also have a significant impact on the properties of the components by inducing undesirable effects. It is necessary to understand the manufacturing process and minimize the introduction of undesirable factors. Thus, this work is to investigate the influence of process parameters (i.e., melt temperature, current intensity, holding pressure, and holding time) on the impregnation quality and mechanical properties of cCFRTs. The results show that fiber fabrics cannot be uniformly distributed in all cCFRTs, resulting in a thick polymer layer on the top of all cCFRTs. Moreover, the fiber distribution shows insensitive to the processing parameters. The increase of melt temperature, the decrease of current intensity and the extension of holding time are conducive to reduce void content and the frequency of macro void; While excessive holding pressure cannot reduce void content due to serious overflow of resin. Meanwhile, the effect of processing parameters on the mechanical properties and fracture morphology of the sample was also determined. The findings show that the flexural strength of the sample is 106.7 ± 0.8 MPa using the optimal processing parameters.