Miniaturised rod-shaped polymer structures with wire or fibre reinforcement—manufacturing and testing

Abstract

Rod-shaped polymer-based composite structures are applied to a wide range of applications in the process engineering, automotive, aviation, aerospace andmarine industries. Therefore, the adequate knowledge of manufacturing methods is essential, covering the fabrication of small amounts of specimens as well as the low-cost manufacturing of high quantities of solid rods using continuous manufacturing processes. To assess the different manufacturing methods and compare the resulting quality of the semi-finished products, the cross-sectional and bending properties of rod-shaped structures obtained from a thermoplastic micro-pultrusion process, conventional fibre reinforced epoxy resin-based solid rods and fibre reinforced thermoplastic polymers manufactured by means of an implemented shrink tube consolidation process, were statistically analysed. Using the statistical method one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), the differences between groups were calculated. The statistical results show that the flexural moduli of carbon fibre reinforced polymers were statistically significantly higher than the modulus of all other investigated specimens (probability value P < 0.001). The discontinuous shrink tube consolidation process resulted in specimens with a smooth outer contour and a high level of roundness. However, this process was recommended for the manufacturing of small amounts of specimens. In contrast, the pultrusion process allowed the manufacturing of high amounts of semi-finished products; however, it requires a more extensive process controlling and manufacturing equipment.