Forming low-cost, high quality carbon tows for automotive application

13th International Conference on Textile Composites

Sharif, T.^1,2 ; Potluri, P.^2 ; Choudhry, R.S.^1 ; Dodworth, A.^3

Department of Mechanical Engineering and Built Environment, College of Engineering and Technology, University of Derby, United Kingdom^1

School of Materials, University of Manchester, United Kingdom^2

Bright Lite Structures (BLS), United Kingdom^3

关键词: Automobile sector;    Automotive applications;    Carbon fiber composite;    Carbon fiber reinforced composite;    Current production;    Increase productions;    ITS applications;    Splitting process;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/406/1/012021/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1757-899X/406/1/012021

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

Carbon fiber reinforced composites are widely used in many industries due to their high performance. Its application in the aerospace industry has increased significantly, however, in mass produced automobile sector it is still limited. The current production of carbon fiber tow is slow and capital intensive. Thus, carbon manufactures produce higher tow counts to increase production rate to reduce its cost. In order to offset the higher cost of carbon fiber composite, an innovative and unique approach has been developed. The higher tow count carbon spools are split into smaller tow counts. Due to the delicate nature of carbon fiber, it is important to control the filamentation during that process. Different splitting process line strategies have been developed in this research work for understanding the process limitations and challenges involved. The process was made feasible for production by developing a fully automated process line with a laser feedback system. The system splits a 12K spool into two 6K tows. The quality of the 6K split tows has been determined statistically by recording real time data from the laser during the splitting process. It was demonstrated that the proposed process effectively controls filamentation and produces consistent tow quality.