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

热塑性复合材料是通过用熔融的热塑性聚合物浸渍增强纤维(例如，玻璃或碳)来制造的。热塑性聚合物熔体是高度粘性的。这使得大型和/或厚增强织物的浸渍既漫长又复杂。一种解决方案是将固体热塑性聚合物和增强纤维结合在一根纱线中。一旦熔化，浸渍时间就会缩短，因为聚合物熔体存在于织物的每根纱线中。最常见的复合纱前驱体是混纺纱。混纺纱是由连续聚合物和增强纤维通过空气喷射混合而成。然而，这项技术成本很高，而且会损坏增强纤维。FilSpec是加拿大领先的纱线纺纱公司之一。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。他们最近收购了一种名为摩擦纺纱或DREF的芯纺技术。我们看到了将这项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与增强纤维结合在一根纱线上。DREF纺丝技术具有成本效益，可保护增强纤维不受损害。本项目的目的是研究DREF纺丝在低成本热塑性拉伸挤出工艺中生产复合纱线原丝的潜力。在拉挤过程中，涤纶纱中的热塑性聚合物组分将熔融并浸渍到涤纶纱的玻璃纤维芯中，形成复合梁。在这个项目的6个月内，FilSpec将生产18批次的涤纶纱。每批纱线都将在蒙特利尔理工学院先进复合材料和纤维结构实验室(ACFSLab)进行拉挤加工。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合适的DREF纺丝复合纱线，以证明拉挤的可行性。

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.