Optimizing Bladder Resin Transfer Molding Process to Manufacture Complex, Thin-Ply Thermoplastic Tubular Composite Structures: An Experimental Case Study

• Published in: Polymers Vol. 13; no. 23; p. 4093
• Main Authors: Bhudolia, Somen K., Perrotey, Pavel, Gohel, Goram, Joshi, Sunil C., Gerard, Pierre, Leong, Kah Fai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 24.11.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Automation; Bladder; Boundary conditions; Case studies; Composite structures; consolidation; Design; Epoxy resins; Flow velocity; Folding; Fracture toughness; Injection molding; Liquid injection; Manufacturing; non-crimp fabrics; Optimization; Permeability; Prepregs; Pressure vessels; Process parameters; Resin transfer molding; thermoplastic resin; Vibration damping; Viscosity; Weight reduction
• ISSN: 2073-4360; 2073-4360
• DOI: 10.3390/polym13234093

The bladder molding process is primarily used in sporting applications but mostly with prepregs. Bladder-Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (B-RTM) presents the tremendous potential to automate and mass produce the complex hollow-composite profiles. Thin-ply, non-crimp fabrics (NCFs) provide excellent mechanical, fracture toughness, and vibration damping properties on top of the weight saving it offers to a final product. However, these fiber architectures are difficult to inject due to the resistance they provide for the polymer flow using the liquid injection process. Therefore, it is mandatory to optimize the process parameters to reduce the time for injection and simultaneously achieve better consolidation. This work presents a first, detailed, experimental case study to successfully inject a low-permeability, thin-ply, complex, thermoplastic tubular structure, and the effect of process parameters, boundary conditions, the associated manufacturing challenges, and proposed solutions are deliberated in this paper.