Prepreg Lay-up Process

Aircraft Materials and Manufacturing Methods II

(Material Pesawat dan Metoda Manufaktur II)

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Prepreg Lay-
up Process
Applications
Manufacturing Defects
Manufacturing defects Sources of manufacturing defects
• Voids
• Resin starved areas
• Resin rich areas
• Delamination
• Blisters, air bubbles
• Wrinkles
• Thermal decomposition
• Improper cure or processing
• Improper machining
• Mishandling
• Improper drilling
• Tool drops
• Contamination
• Improper sanding
• Substandard material
• Inadequate tooling
• Mislocation of holes or details
Daerah void dengan variasi pressure yang berbeda: (a) 0.6 MPa dan (b) 0.0 MPa [3]
Sources of variations
• Maintaining accurate fibre orientations in the parts is difficult because prepregs are laid
down by hand
• Automated tape placements equipment can be used for precise fibre orientation
• Obtaining void-free parts is a challenge during this process. Voids are caused by
entrapped air between layers
• Achieving warpage- or distortion-free parts during this prepreg lay-up process is
challenging. Warpage is caused by built-in residual stresses during processing
Advantages of the Process
• Very common in Aerospace Industry
• It allows Complicated with High Fibre volume fractions (more than 60%)
• Open Molding with low-volume capability
• For building prototype parts and small quantity runs, the prepreg lay-up process provides
advantages over other processes
Disadvantages of the Process
• Very labour intensive
• Labour cost are 50 to 100 times greater than filament winding, pultrusion and other
high-volume process
• It is not suitable for high-volume production applications
• Large investment costs. Large scale industrial autoclaves and auxiliarry equipment can
be in the range of USD1.0 million