Development of Manufacturing Process for Thick Curved Thermoplastic Composite Tubes by Using Automated Fiber Placement

Abstract

A process for the manufacturing of curved thick thermoplastic composite tubes using automated fiber placement is presented. The process involves the use of partially dissolvable mandrels to facilitate the removal of the segmented mandrels from the final piece. A six-axis automated fiber placement machine was used to deposit tapes of carbon/PEEK (1/4†wide) onto the mandrel. A tube consisting of 140 layers of the thermoplastic composites was made. It was tested under three point bending to obtain the deformation and the load to failure.