Truly Mould free Carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) manufacturing by double-point incremental forming (DPIF) and direct electrical cure (DEC)

Carbon fibre-reinforced polymers (CFRPs) have been widely used in a variety of high-performance fields, such as aerospace, automotive and sport. CFRP manufacturing methods require extended curing times and moulds. The mould is used to define the shape of the composite. Moulds are expensive and add considerably to the costs for small production runs. Additionally, autoclaves and ovens have high running costs due to the indirect heating of the part.
This thesis proposed a novel mould-free CFRP manufacturing method, double-point incremental forming (DPIF) with direct electrical curing (DEC). To achieve this, the conductivity of the CFRP is increased by adding conductive nanoparticles into the matrix (epoxy resin). First, carbon nanoparticles, including carbon black (CB), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and graphene, were dispersed into the epoxy resin system. Compared with CNTs and graphene, CB shows good dispersion. With a CB loading of 2wt.%, the composite shows optimal performance in terms of electrical and mechanical properties.
Then, CFRP with 2 wt.DEC manufactured % CB with four different electrical contact arrangements. Here, the top-bottom mode (current through the laminate) has the best performance, which established a solid foundation for DPIF research.
For DPIF, CFRP with 2 wt.% CB was used. Experimental and finite element analysis methods are used to evaluate the DPIF process. The result indicates that DPIF can cure the sample in a short time without fibre damage. In addition, DPIF has the same performance in terms of mechanical properties and DoC as traditional manufacturing methods (oven and autoclave) but with much lower energy consumption. DPIF achieved fast localised consolidation and curing without a mould.