Investigation into property control of VaRTM composites by resin infusion process

This paper proposes a property control method in vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding (VaRTM) using porous mold process (PMP) to fabricate carbon fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRP) composites. Low-cost VaRTM process generally induces the variation in quality and properties of fabricated composites, depending on infusion and curing process, dimension and configuration of stacked fabrics, etc. and involves difficulty in control of the properties of fabricated composites. As resin content in the composites can be easily controlled in VaRTM process combined with PMP, this paper investigates the effect of infused resin content on the final mechanical properties of CFRP. It is demonstrated that volume fraction of carbon fibers and the resultant mechanical properties of CFRP can be controlled by the infusion process control. Finally, application of the present control method to the manufacturing of a complex CFRP panel with thickness variation is demonstrated. It is concluded that the measured mechanical properties fit well with the designated properties.