Innovative Injection Molding Process for the Fabrication of Woven Fabric Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites

Abstract

Woven fabric reinforced thermoplastic composites have been gaining significant attention as a lightweight alternative to metal in various industrial fields owing to their high stiffness and strength. Conventional manufacturing processes of woven fabric reinforced thermoplastic composites can be divided into two steps: first, the manufacturing of intermediate material, known as prepreg; then, the formation of the final products from the prepregs. This two-step process increases the manufacturing cost and time of the final composite products. This study demonstrated that woven fabric reinforced thermoplastic composites could be fabricated by an innovative injection molding process instead of the two-step process. A structure placing an extra mesh, which is a new and key component, on the mold-side of woven fabric was devised so that the thermoplastic matrix could be impregnated up to the surface of the woven fabric during injection molding. Tensile tests were performed in the direction parallel to the yarns of the fabric on the injection-molded composites to confirm their mechanical properties. As a result, it was possible to fabricate woven fabric reinforced thermoplastic composites with increased mechanical properties using injection molding without prepreg, and the composites could be molded with a much shorter cycle time than the conventional process, such as thermoforming or over-molding process.

Effect of stacking order on the properties of hybrid palm sheath/polyester fiber felt‐reinforced polymer composite laminates

“…Consequently, the acoustic energy is converted into thermal energy and attenuated, effectively enhancing the mechanical and acoustic properties of composites 11,12 . Furthermore, this approach eliminates the need to weave natural fibers into woven fabrics, thereby reducing the cost and time associated with composite production and preparation 13 …”

Direct In-Mold Impregnation of Glass Fiber Fabric by Polypropylene with Supercritical Nitrogen in Microcellular Injection Molding Process

“…Therefore, how to improve the impregnation rate during a very short injection molding time, is a major problem to be solved [ 20 , 21 , 22 ]. Jeong et al [ 23 ] investigated the direct impregnation of carbon woven fabric with a PP melt in injection molding. Particularly, they applied an aluminum mesh between the woven fabric and mold surface to improve the impregnation rate.…”

Gate design algorithm to maximize the fiber orientation effectiveness in thermoplastic injection-molded components

“…Although injection molding is considered a fairly well-established manufacturing process, several independent parameters must be properly set to achieve a high quality of the molded parts, especially in terms of minimizing warpage, shrinkage, and weld-lines on the critical region of the component [5][6][7]. Besides, the recent trend is to incorporate woven composite into an injection-molded thermoplastic matrix to achieve recyclability while enhancing the mechanical properties of the molded part [8].…”