Development and validation of an automatic manufacturing process for fiberglass composites

Abstract

Fiberglass reinforced polymeric composites are ideal for various applications due to their mechanical properties and lightweight. However, nowadays many fiberglass reinforced composite manufacturing processes are manual, which makes it complicated for them to meet industrial requirements regarding the quality and reliability of the manufactured parts, limiting their applications. The development of automatic and digital processes lead to the reduction of manual labour and, as a consequence, the cost and variability of the process. Nevertheless, the industrial implementation of these automatic processes requires them to be economically affordable, flexible and simple. Therefore, the research work carried out has focused on the development of an automatic fiberglass composite manufacturing process able to produce composites with mechanical properties comparable to those obtained in conventional manufacturing processes. For this purpose, a two-stage manufacturing line has been developed: (i) the automatic manufacture of fiberglass and ultraviolet (UV) resin prepregs, and (ii) the compaction and curing of these prepregs. The process has been validated by measuring the physical and mechanical properties of the manufactured composites and comparing them to those obtained with hand lay-up and infusion processes.