THE INFLUENCE OF MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF THE LAYERED COMPOSITE

Abstract

The share of composites in today's aerospace industry is steadily increasing. Layered composites are the most popular in aviation. There are a number of methods of their manufacture, each with specific characteristics. One of the most popular simple methods are  the technique using a hydraulic press to apply pressure, the vacuum bag method and the infusion method. They are all widely used and useful in individual and mass production, and allow the same types of composites to be made, but due to the differences, the resulting composites, despite having the same structure, may have different properties. In order to verify this observation, an experimental study of the same carbon fabric-reinforced polymer layered composites made by the methods mentioned above was carried out. The mechanical properties of the composites were studied, with a particular focus on their resistance to low-energy impact loading. The results of the study indicate that the composites produced by the infusion method have the best mechanical properties, and with the selected manufacturing technology parameters, the method using a hydraulic press produced the composite with the lowest surface mass.