Thermoforming of Woven Carbon Fiber Thermoplastic Composites

In this work, thermoforming was adopted to manufacture woven carbon fiber/thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) composite structures. Before that, differential scanning calorimeter was used to characterize the glass transition temperature and the melting point of the thermoplastic composite. Then, the simple structures with the omega shape were manufactured to investigate the effect of the lamination sequence and the blank holding pressure. Finally, the structure of a small luggage box was manufactured to examine its quality. The results indicate that the glass transition temperature of the thermoplastic composite is around $82.66 ^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$ and its melting temperature is about $190.60 ^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$. Therefore, the forming temperature of the composite is set to $170 ^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$, and the temperatures of the top mold and the low mold are $100 ^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$ and $160 ^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$, respectively. From the results of the simple structure, the lamination sequence of $[ ( 0 ^{\circ}/ 90 ^{\circ})]$ and $[ ( + 45 ^{\circ} /- 45 ^{\circ})]$ have quilt different material flowing during the process such that they have different product contours. The blank holding pressure could improve the product quality as compared to zero pressure. By using these forming parameters, one could manufacture a good product of the small luggage box.