Novel Semi-Finished Thermoplastic Composite Precursors********

热塑性复合材料通过浸渍增强纤维（例如，玻璃或碳）与熔融的热塑性聚合物。热塑性聚合物熔体是高粘性的。这使得大的和/或厚的增强织物的浸渍冗长且复杂。一种解决方案是将固体热塑性聚合物和增强纤维联合收割机组合在单纱中。一旦熔融，浸渍缩短，因为聚合物熔体在织物的每根纱线内。最常见的复合纱线前体是混合纱线。混纤纱是由连续的聚合物纤维和增强纤维通过空气喷射混合而成。然而，这种技术成本高，并且会损坏增强纤维。FilSpec是加拿大领先的纺纱公司之一。为了在竞争中保持领先地位，他们不断寻求利用先进技术开发新的高附加值市场。他们最近获得了一种称为摩擦纺纱（DREF）的核心纺纱技术。我们看到了将这种技术用于复合材料应用的巨大潜力，因为它可以将聚合物纤维联合收割机与增强纤维结合在一根纱线中。DREF纺丝技术具有成本效益，并保护增强纤维免受损坏。本项目的目的是研究DREF纺纱生产低成本热塑性纸浆工艺用复合纱线前体的潜力。在拉浆过程中，DREF纱线的热塑性聚合物组分将熔化并拉浆DREF纱线的玻璃纤维芯以形成复合梁。在该项目的6个月期间，FilSpec将生产18批DREF纺纱。每批纱线将在蒙特利尔理工大学的先进复合材料和纤维结构实验室（ACFSlab）进行拉挤成型。将对纱线和拉挤材料进行彻底的表征。这种表征的反馈将有助于开发适当的复合DREF纺纱，以证明纸浆的可行性。

Thermoplastic composite materials are manufactured by impregnating reinforcement fibers (e.g., glass or carbon) with a melted thermoplastic polymer. The thermoplastic polymer melts are highly viscous. This makes the impregnation of large and/or thick reinforcement fabrics lengthy and complicated. One solution is to combine the solid thermoplastic polymer and reinforcement fibers in a single yarn. Once melted, the impregnation is shortened since the polymer melt is within each yarn of the fabric. The most common composite yarn precursor is the commingled yarn. Commingled yarns are composed of continuous polymer and reinforcement fibers blended through air jets. However, this technology is costly and can damage the reinforcement fibers. FilSpec is one of the leading yarn spinning company in Canada. To stay ahead of competition, they are constantly looking to develop new and high value-added markets with advanced technologies. They recently acquired a core spinning technology called friction spinning, or DREF. We see a great potential to use this technology for composite application since it can combine polymer fibers to reinforcement fibers in one single yarn. DREF spinning technology is cost effective and protect the reinforcement fibers from damage. The objective of this project is to investigate the potential of the DREF spinning to manufacture composite yarn precursors for low cost thermoplastic pultrusion process. During pultrusion, the thermoplastic polymer component of the DREF yarns will melt and impregnate the DREF yarns' glass fiber core to form a composite beam. During the 6 months of this project, 18 batches of DREF-spinned yarns will be made at FilSpec. Each yarn batch will be pultruded at Polytechnique Montreal's Advanced Composite and Fiber Structures laboratory (ACFSlab). Thorough characterization of the yarn and pultruded material will be made. Feedback from this characterization will help develop a proper composite DREF-spinned yarn to demonstrate pultrusion feasibility.