Vacuum Chamber Infusion for Fiber-Reinforced Composites

Area of Science:

• Materials Science and Engineering
• Manufacturing Processes
• Composite Materials

Background:

• Automating fiber impregnation and consolidation is crucial for efficient composite part manufacturing.
• Traditional methods like Vacuum Assisted Process (VAP) have limitations in terms of complexity and consumables.
• Developing new, simplified, and automatable processes is essential for advancing composite manufacturing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and evaluate a novel Vacuum Chamber Infusion (VCI) process for manufacturing fiber-reinforced composite parts.
• To compare the VCI process with the established Vacuum Assisted Process (VAP) regarding material properties, automation, and efficiency.
• To assess the potential for reducing complexity, increasing automation, and minimizing consumables in resin infusion processes.

Main Methods:

• Modification of a vacuum chamber sealing machine for resin infusion (VCI).
• Infusion of dry fiber placement (DFP) preforms using carbon fiber tape with VCI and VAP.
• Analysis of mechanical properties, void content, and fiber volume fraction (FVF) for both processes.

Main Results:

• VCI achieved comparable material characteristics to VAP.
• VCI demonstrated a fourfold reduction in consumables, setup complexity, and manufacturing time.
• Both VCI and VAP resulted in less than 2% void content; VCI achieved 39% FVF, while VAP achieved 45% FVF.

Conclusions:

• Vacuum Chamber Infusion (VCI) presents a viable, automatable alternative for composite manufacturing.
• The VCI process offers significant advantages in efficiency and resource reduction over VAP.
• Further development of VCI could lead to more streamlined and cost-effective composite production.