Improve durability and surface quality of additively manufactured molds using carbon fiber prepreg

Pritesh Yeole, Cliff Herring, Ahmed Hassen, Vlastimil Kunc, Robert Stratton, Uday Vaidya

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Hybrid tooling is an emerging concept introduced in the aerospace industries to reduce weight and cost of traditional tools. A hybrid tool features a skin, which provides desired surface quality, durability, and a low-density substrate to reduce the weight of the mold. The big area additive manufacturing (BAAM) technology permits rapid production of thermoplastic polymer intensive large-scale structures. The present study features a carbon fiber reinforced polyphenylene sulfide (CF-PPS) substrate fabricated using Oak Ridge National Laboratory's BAAM system. Carbon fiber-bismaleimide (CF-BMI) prepreg skin was then bonded to the BAAM tool through high-pressure autoclave molding. Process optimization was conducted to improve the bonding between CF-PPS and CF-BMI (transverse tensile strength increased from 0.54 to 4.8 MPa). Durability of the mold was demonstrated from fabricating seven (7) carbon fiber-Huntsman epoxy hand lay-up parts utilizing the mold.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2101-2111
Number of pages11
JournalPolymer Composites
Volume42
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2021

Funding

Tennessee REVV program and in part by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), U.S. Department of Energy, Grant/Award Number: DE‐EE0006926; U.S. Department of Energy; Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Funding information The information, data, or work presented herein was funded in part by the Tennessee REVV program and in part by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), U.S. Department of Energy, under Award Number DE-EE0006926. We gratefully acknowledge the Institute of Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI) and the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF), Oakridge National Laboratory (ORNL), TN, USA. The information, data, or work presented herein was funded in part by the Tennessee REVV program and in part by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), U.S. Department of Energy, under Award Number DE‐EE0006926. We gratefully acknowledge the Institute of Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI) and the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF), Oakridge National Laboratory (ORNL), TN, USA.

FundersFunder number
Institute of Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation
Manufacturing Demonstration Facility
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Funding information
Tennessee REVV
U.S. Department of EnergyDE‐EE0006926
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

    Keywords

    • autoclave molding
    • big area additive manufacturing
    • hybrid tooling
    • mold degradation
    • transverse tensile strength

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