Abstract
Prepregs of continuous glass fibre reinforced thermoplastics were produced, applying different processing variables of the powder impregnation process. The investigation was concerned with the effects of tow tension, line speed and temperature. A recently developed process model was employed to interpret the effects of temperature and fibre volume fraction on void content. An equation was derived to calculate fibre volume fraction according to the width of a spread fibre tow. Experimental results demonstrate that the process variables greatly affect the fibre content and the void content of the prepregs. The unidirectional prepregs of polyphenylene sulphide were laminated by hot-pressing. The flexural and shear strengths of the laminates are disproportionate to the void content of the prepregs, and the laminates.
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