A novel route for volume manufacturing of hollow braided composite beam structures

Abstract

This work investigates the application of a rapid variothermal moulding process for direct processing of a braided thermoplastic commingled yarn. The process uses locally controllable, responsive tooling which provides opportunities for optimum part quality and significantly reduced cycle times compared with conventional processes. The proposed process was used to directly manufacture hollow beam structures from dry commingled braided preforms. It was demonstrated that the cycle time using the rapid process was reduced by more than 90% as compared to a conventional bladder moulding process, resulting in a total cycle time of 14 min. Additionally, initial three point flexure test results indicated an improvement in the mechanical performance of the resultant parts as compared to the benchmark.

The effect of braid angle on the flexural performance of structural braided thermoplastic composite beams

“…For each braid angle, three layers of the commingled fabric were braided over 25 mm diameter mandrels to produce multi-layer braided preforms. A bladder moulding process previously developed by the authors, called rapid variothermal moulding (RVM) [27], was used to produce tubular beams from braided commingled preforms. Figure 2(a) shows the steel tool used to mould the braided beams.…”