Temperature Monitoring on Microwave Curing of DGEBA E-51 and 4,4’DDM System

Temperature monitoring was done on microwave curing of epoxy resin system consisting of di-glycidyl ether of bisphenol-A(DGEBA) E-51 and curing agent 4,4’diamino-diphenyl-methane (DDM). The study shows that microwave curing of epoxy resin system is an exothermic reaction and the temperature variation during microwave processing has the obvious characteristics of “temperature increment - heat release - temperature falling”. Analysis on the infrared thermal images indicates that each moulding body has its own temperature distribution and differs from others. The non-uniform temperature distribution reveals the uneven electric field distribution in the domestic microwave oven.