Effect of Resin Supply Form on Mechanical Properties of Continuous Carbon Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastics

Abstract

Carbon Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastics (CFRTP) have been attracting attention in various fields due to their excellence in specific strength, specific modulus, productivity and recyclability. A film stacking method is one of the molding methods of CFRTP laminates. In this method, laminated sheets of matrix films and reinforcing fiber sheets are hot pressed. This method needs a long time under high temperature and high pressure in order to obtain good impregnation of the matrix resin into fiber bundles. To improve the productivity of CFRTP, a non-woven stacking method, in which non-woven fabrics and reinforcing fiber sheets are alternately laminated and molded under compressive stress, has been proposed as an alternative means of the film stacking method. Non-woven fabric can be heated faster than the film because of its larger contact area to the heated air. Therefore, productivity is expected to be improved by using non-woven fabric as a matrix of CFRTP. In this study, CFRTP were molded using non-woven fabrics and films for the matrix, and the bending tests of CFRTP were conducted to clarify the effect of resin supply form on mechanical properties of CFRTP. From the observation of melting form, non-woven fabrics melted into individual fibers while films melted into a single mass. For resin supply from, non-woven fabrics showed good impregnation property compared to films. The interlaminar shear strength and the bending strength of CFRTP using non-woven fabrics for the matrix are higher than CFRTP using films with molding time of 240 seconds or less.