Development of novel transportation shells for use in high volume composite part manufacture: the clamshell concept

开发用于大批量复合材料零件制造的新型运输外壳：翻盖概念

基本信息

批准号：
1936618
负责人：
金额：
--
依托单位：
University of Bristol
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Studentship
财政年份：
2017
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2017 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-1936618
关键词：
Development novel transportation shells use

项目摘要

During the manufacture of composite parts utilising direct impregnation/Liquid Composite Moulding techniques, the dry laminate is held to shape utilising tackifiers (or 'binders'). This allows the dry material to become what is termed a 'preform'. Preforming of the dry material serves two key purposes: firstly, it allows the preform to hold its shape before full impregnation has taken place. This helps to prevent generation of defects in the preform due to handling and transportation of the preform, alongside allowing a decrease in bulk factor and the possibility of damage to the tool. Secondly, preforming allows more efficient utilisation of equipment; the infusion equipment can be dedicated just to infusion/cure, as opposed to shaping as well. This is opposed to the manufacturing techniques utilised traditionally with prepreg materials, and is crucial to the upscaling of any manufacturing process towards a high-volume, automated assembly line type process.However, the use of binders to stabilise the preform also provides a number of problems. A key issue when utilising binder materials is the large time cost of 'activation' and cooling of the binder materials, contributing to over half of the time cost of a typical HP-RTM part. It follows therefore that the removal of this can vastly reduce takt time for these parts and allow significant increases in the volumes of parts it is possible to produce. Further, the use of binder materials has also been shown to reduce the permeability of the cloth, leading to lower impregnation, as well as lowering the quality of the final part by introducing material other than the fibre or matrix within the bulk structure. As such, it can be seen that removal of these stabilisers can lead to both drastic increases in production volume and an increase in the quality of the final part. A novel method of achieving this is the focus of the work set out here.In order to achieve binder removal, a new concept termed the "Clamshell Concept" has been envisioned. This concept aims to include no form of traditional binder whatsoever. Instead, a pre-made external shell structure shall be utilised to hold and clamp the preform into shape. This then will allow transportation of the preform from the preforming station to the infusion station without the introduction of defects. Further, the shell can then be utilised to form the matrix material for the system, through an infusion method into the dried preform. This concept will allow the removal of the use of binders, both allowing an increase in final part quality and manufacture volumes. Tradition high volume plastic forming processes can be employed (e.g. injection moulding) to form the thin shells, and as such these should be able to be manufactured rapidly and with less cost. Variations of this concept can also be explored, including reusable shells that can be washed out and utilised many times, or shells designed to give a specific surface finish.The PhD projection undertaken will aim to investigate the feasibility of both the process and possible materials for this concept. Objectives include (but are not limited to):* Research current and potential future manufacturing processes and determine a set of guidelines* Research suitable materials that can be used to form the shell* Develop and characterise the material choices* Demonstrate the feasibility of the processing concepts utilising this shell* Determine the infusion methods to be used and work towards optimising these* Investigate methods of automating this conceptAs such, it can be seen that investigation of this concept is taking place to discover if this concept is capable of providing a disruptive step change in the performance of high-volume manufacture techniques.

在利用直接浸渍/液体复合成型技术的复合零件制造过程中，将使用粘性器（或“粘合剂”）塑造干层压板。这允许干燥材料成为称为“预成型”的东西。预制干材料有两个关键目的：首先，它允许预成型在完全浸渍之前保持其形状。这有助于防止由于预成型的处理和运输而导致预成型缺陷的产生，从而允许减少散装因子以及对工具损坏的可能性。其次，预制允许更有效地利用设备；输液设备可以仅用于输注/治疗，而不是塑造。这与传统上使用预处理材料一起使用的制造技术相反，并且对于将任何制造过程降低到大量，自动化的装配线类型过程至关重要。利用粘合剂材料的一个关键问题是“激活”和粘合剂材料冷却的巨大时间成本，这导致了典型的HP-RTM部分的一半以上时间成本。因此，因此，去除此部分可以大大减少这些零件的时间，并允许产生的零件体积大幅度增加。此外，还显示使用粘合剂材料可降低布的渗透性，从而导致浸渍降低，并通过在块状结构内引入纤维或基质以外的其他材料来降低最后一部分的质量。因此，可以看出，去除这些稳定剂可以导致生产量的急剧增加和最终部分质量的提高。实现这一目标的一种新颖的方法是在这里提出的工作的重点。为了实现粘合剂的去除，已经设想了一个新概念，称为“ clamshell概念”。这个概念旨在不包括传统粘合剂的任何形式。取而代之的是，应利用预制的外壳结构将预成型固定并固定成形状。然后，这将允许在不引入缺陷的情况下将预成型从预制站运输到输液站。此外，然后可以通过输注方法将壳用于系统为系统形成矩阵材料。这个概念将允许消除使用者的使用，既可以提高最终零件质量和制造量。可以使用传统的大量塑料形成工艺（例如注射成型）形成薄壳，因此，这些过程应能够快速制造，成本较低。还可以探索此概念的变化，包括可重复使用的壳可以被洗掉和使用多次，或旨在给出特定表面表面处理的壳。进行的PHD投影将旨在研究该过程的可行性和该概念的可能材料。目标包括（但不限于）：*研究当前和潜在的未来制造过程，并确定一组准则*可以使用适当的材料来形成外壳*，以开发和表征材料选择**使用该外壳的处理概念的可行性*使用此外壳的可行性*确定了使用这些概念的方法，该概念是否能够进行这些概念，以使这些概念能够进行此类概念，以使这些概念能够自动化这些概念。在高批量制造技术的性能方面提供了破坏性的步骤。