MANUFACTURING AND TESTING OF CURVED FIBER COMPOSITES USING VACUUM ASSISTED RESIN TRANSFER MOLDING (VARTM)

The resin infusion (aka. Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding VARTM) process has significant potential to be used to manufacture curved composites. Another way to produce curved or complex geometry is to use 3D printers. 3D or FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) printers are now being used to produce relatively cheaper curved parts using thermoplastics such as PLA. However, the strength and mechanical performance of these parts is limited and can be enhanced if the polymer is reinforced with a type of fiber for instance. Research is being carried out to produce fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites but that process is expected to be more expensive than the alternative methods such as injection or compression molding. In this research molds will be created using an FDM printer to manufacture curved composites via the resin injection process, i.e. with epoxy resin system and glass/carbon/flax fiber reinforcement. By replacing the costly metallic molds by significantly cheaper PLA molds, the cost of production will further be reduced. Hence, using double sided PLA molds will not be a threat to the overall cost of the composite part in question compared to double-sided matched molds used in compression molding. Shear strength of the manufactured composite parts will be found. The results showed that this method is effective for a cheaper production of curved epoxy resin composites. However, the strength of the part will decrease as the curved profile gets more complicated unless the basic resin infusion process is altered.