DYNAMIC FLUID COMPRESSION MOLDING; A NEW PROCESS FOR MASS PRODUCTION OF HIGH QUALITY COMPOSITES PARTS.

One of the main challenges in expanding composites use in various applications is the part manufacturing cost. While out of autoclave processes have been evolving to address this issue, it always comes at the expense of lower quality. This has left engineers with the task of balancing the race between production cost, speed and parts' quality. While processes such as sheet molding (SMC), bulk molding (BMC) and wet compression molding (WCM) offer fast production rate, parts manufactured with these processes lack the good performance and quality needed for many applications. To address this drawback, process such as High Pressure Resin Transfer Molding (HP-RTM) may be used to improve the quality at the cost of higher initial capital needed and slower production. A new process is designed and developed by Huntsman Advanced Materials that combines the HP-RTM and WCM benefits into single technique. Dynamic Fluid Compression Molding (DFCM) is a new process that can be used to mass produce high quality parts. This process addresses the low quality, high waste of resin and fiber and lack of robustness of WCM. It also offers faster production rate, lower working pressure and no fiber movement compared to HP-RTM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]