Abstract
Vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VaRTM), allowing the forming of low cost and relatively high quality structures, is widely used for the fabrication of wind turbine blades and other large FRP structures. In the VaRTM method, a dry fabric laminate structure is impregnated with resin on the surface of the dry perform. Accordingly, substantial time is required for the resin to fully occupy thick portions of the item being formed, thus complicating efforts to uphold the stability of manufacturing steps. In order to achieve high quality molding in a short time, molding conditions such as the arrangement of resin injection ports must be optimized, making it essential to accurately grasp the behavior of resin impregnation behavior. With the objective of ascertaining the impregnation behavior of resin, this report presents measurement results for the edge positioning of resin flow in the VaRTM method applied to thick CFRP, as well as time-wise changes in resin pressure.
