Ultra-thin chopped carbon fiber tape-reinforced thermoplastics, which belong to a class of randomly oriented strands and are characterized by enhanced strength, stiffness, and formability properties, have been prepared via a paper-making method from ultra-thin thermoplastic prepregs. The failure of ultra-thin chopped carbon fiber tape-reinforced thermoplastics under static tensile loading was studied in detail using various observation techniques, such as high-speed camera imaging, thermography, and optical microscopy. The obtained results revealed that the tensile fracture of ultra-thin chopped carbon fiber tape-reinforced thermoplastics exhibited three main patterns: fiber breakage, splitting of chopped tapes, and pulling out of chopped tapes. In contrast to conventional randomly oriented strands, the utilization of ultra-thin prepregs decreased the tensile strength scattering. An increase in the ultra-thin prepreg tape length resulted in an increase in the strength average magnitude, reaching saturation at a length of 18 mm. The results of this study can be used for constructing tensile strength prediction models and expanding the ultra-thin chopped carbon fiber tape-reinforced thermoplastics application range.
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