AUTOMATED FIBER PLACEMENT OF THERMOPLASTIC MATERIALS: EFFECTS OF PROCESS PARAMETERS ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF THE LAMINATE.

When using thermoplastic composite automated fiber placement, two opposing layup qualities are sought: a very fast tacking of the plies allowing a high throughput of materials and at the opposite end of the spectrum, the so called "in-situ consolidation" where the part will not require any postlayup consolidation. In order to evaluate the effects of machine parameters, a set of thermoplastic laminates was manufactured using a state of the art laser assisted AFP machine developed by Coriolis. The process parameters (namely compaction force, speed, size of laser beam, head tilt angle) were changed. The quality of the resulting panels was characterized by density measurements and cross section microscopy. The results show that the processing parameters have a strong effect on the quantity and location of the porosities. The key features of the future AFP machines are discussed with these results in mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]