Resistance heating forming process based on carbon fiber veil for continuous glass fiber reinforced polypropylene

Abstract

This paper successfully developed a resistance heating method based on carbon fiber thin veil for molding continuous glass fiber reinforced polypropylene composite. Electrical resistance, temperature distribution, and heating response of carbon fiber veil were investigated to evaluate its resistance heating behavior. One layer of carbon fiber veil with about 0.1 mm thickness was sandwiched by prepreg stacks with about 2 mm thickness and composite plate was fabricated through resistance heating and forming process. Void content, glass fiber distribution, and thickness of composite plate were obtained to evaluate forming quality. Flexural test was employed for mechanical assessment. The results shows that carbon fiber veil coupled with copper foil is an effective heating element with uniform temperature distribution and quick heating response, and the processing quality of composite plate is comparable to that using oven heating process. The feasibility of secondary resistance heating of composite plate based on carbon fiber veil was also demonstrated and the results indicate that composite plate containing carbon fiber veil can be molded into composite product using resistance self-heating process.