Composites

Carbon Based Reinforced Plastics: From Traditional to Frontiers Carbon Fillers - Original Article
and Advanced Materials

Composites and Advanced Materials

Volume 30: 1–8
ª The Author(s) 2021
Optimization of molding process Article reuse guidelines:
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parameters for CF/PEEK composites DOI: 10.1177/26349833211001882
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based on Taguchi method

Guangming Dai1, Lihua Zhan1,2 , Chenglong Guan1

and Minghui Huang1

Abstract
In this article, nine groups of laminates were prepared according to the Taguchi L9(33) test array to study the influence of
three process parameters, including molding pressure, molding temperature, and holding time on the performance of
unidirectional carbon fiber/polyetheretherketone (CF/PEEK) laminates. A differential scanning calorimetry test was
employed to select a reasonable process parameters range. The transverse tensile strength of the laminates was mea-
sured, and the fiber–matrix interfacial bonding behavior of the tested samples was analyzed by scanning electron
microscopy. The results showed that the significance of factors to transverse tensile strength were molding temperature,
holding time, and molding pressure in sequence. The optimal molding process parameters for CF/PEEK composite
laminate were molding temperature of 400 C, molding pressure of 3 MPa, and holding time of 30 min. The optimization
results were meaningful for the extension and application of thermoplastic composites.

Keywords
CF/PEEK composite, molding, process parameters, optimization, Taguchi method

Introduction process parameters on the consolidation quality of glass

Thermoplastic composites have been widely used in the
aerospace field in recent years because of their numerous
advantages over thermosetting composites, such as high-
specific strength, stiffness, and impact resistance tough-
ness.1–3 Besides, the excellent thermochemical stability
of the thermoplastic matrix makes its prepreg almost has
no limit in terms of storage environmental factors and time.
Only physical changes occur during the molding process,
which leads to a shorter forming cycle and better recycl-
ability.4 So, it has great potential in improving production
efficiency and reducing manufacturing cost.
Due to the high melt viscosity of the resin, it is difficult
for the thermoplastic matrix to infiltrate the fiber. The
molding process relied on high temperature and pressure.
To realize the low cost and rapid manufacture of thermo-
plastic composites, many scholars have studied its molding
process.5–7 Lessard et al. thought that the parts were
better consolidated under higher pressure, and the interla-
minar shear strength (ILSS) was improved accordingly.8
Bernhardsson et al. studied the influence of molding
fiber/polypropylene commingled yarn-based composites
and believed that temperature was the critical process para-
meter.9 McCool et al. found that raising the mold tempera-
ture was conducive to improving the bending strength of
the carbon fiber/polyphenylene sulfide laminates because
the cooling rate was lowered in this way.10 Xu et al. found
that if the materials were held at high temperatures for an
excessive time, the polymer matrix would degrade, thus
would affect the mechanical properties of the materi-
als.11–13 Gao and Kim pointed out that the crystallinity of
1
School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Central South
University, Changsha, Hunan, China
2
Light Alloys Research Institute, Central South University, Changsha,
Hunan, China
Date received: 10 February 2021; accepted: 20 February 2021
Corresponding author:
Lihua Zhan, School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Central South
University, Changsha, Hunan 410083, China.
Email: yjszhan@126.com

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2 Composites and Advanced Materials
Table 1. CF/PEEK prepreg parameters.
Value Unit Standard
Fiber volume fraction 60 % EN2559
Fiber weight fraction 67 % EN2559
Tape density 1.58 g cm3 ISO1183
Tape thickness 0.14 Mm
Tape width 304.8 Mm
CF/PEEK: carbon fiber/polyetheretherketone.
Figure 1. Compression molding system.
the polymer matrix was related to the cooling rate. The
performance of the material was affected by crystallinity
to a large extent.14 It was not difficult to find that molding
temperature and pressure were the two research hot spots,
and the majority of them studied the influence of single
process parameters. However, it is difficult to establish a
reasonable molding process according to a single process
parameter, and there is no comprehensive consideration of
quality, precision, and efficiency. Therefore, optimizing
the molding process parameters systematically is of great
significance.
Hence, the aims of this research are to know the effect of
the three process parameters, including molding pressure,
molding temperature, and holding time to the molding
quality of carbon-fiber-reinforced polyetheretherketone
(CF/PEEK) composites, and obtain the optimum parameter
array in a certain process condition.
Experiments and tests
Materials
The materials used in the experiments were CF/PEEK pre-
preg produced by Evonik Industries, and the main material
parameters are presented in Table 1.
Compression molding system
The compression molding system is sketched in Figure 1.
The mold is consists of the upper and lower plates, thermal
baffle, and an annular heating frame. The pressure is pro-
vided by the hydropress. The temperature controller can
collect the real-time temperature data of the laminates with
a thermocouple during the molding process and control the
temperature precisely (+2 C) by turning on or off the
annular heating frame. A layer of heat insulation cotton is
Figure 2. DSC curve of the CF/PEEK prepreg composites. DSC:
differential scanning calorimetry; CF/PEEK: carbon fiber/
polyetheretherketone.
wrapped around the mold to improve the heating efficiency
and ensure the uniformity of the temperature field.
Preparation of unidirectional CF/PEEK laminates
To select a reasonable process parameters range, the ther-
mal and crystallization properties of the CF/PEEK prepregs
were analyzed by the differential scanning calorimetry
(DSC) test. The tests were conducted in an inert atmo-
sphere of argon. The prepreg was heated from room tem-
perature (25 C) to 400 C with the rate of 10 C min1, then
cooled to 100 C with the same rate. As shown in Figure 2,
there are melting and crystalline peaks in the heating and
cooling process, respectively. The melting range is approx-
imately 328–355 C, and the melting point is at 343.8 C.
Therefore, to ensure the full melting and lower matrix’s
viscosity, the lowest molding temperature was set at 370 C.
It is well known that the crystallinity of semicrystalline
polymer is related to the cooling rate.14 The mechanical
properties are controlled by the matrix’s crystallinity, a low
cooling rate is recommended to ensure excellent perfor-
mance of the composites, and the molding efficiency would
be affected if the cooling rate was selected too low.15 It can
be seen from the DSC curve that the crystallization range is
approximately 268–298 C, and the crystallization peak is
at 287.0 C. The temperature of the laminates versus time
was recorded as the mold was allowed to cool freely to
room temperature and the cooling rate was nearly constant
(4.2 C min1) while the temperature dropped from 400 C
to 250 C. It was evident that the crystallization occurred in
this range. The crystallinity of PEEK was believed to
remain at a relatively high level at this cooling rate
(4.2 C min1) according to the study by Chen et al., which
eliminated the issue of poor performance caused by low
crystallinity.16 Therefore, all of the laminates were air-
cooled freely in this study.
Nine groups of unidirectional CF/PEEK laminates were
prepared according to the Taguchi L9(33) test array. The
selection of the parameter ranges were based on the
Dai et al. 3

Table 2. Taguchi L9(33) test array with factors and levels.

A: Molding B: Molding
temperature pressure C: Holding
Factors and levels ( C) (MPa) time (min)
1 370 1 0
2 400 2 15
3 430 3 30
Text number No. 1 370 1 0
No. 2 370 2 15
No. 3 370 3 30
No. 4 400 1 15
No. 5 400 2 30
No. 6 400 3 0
No. 7 430 1 30
No. 8 430 2 0
No. 9 430 3 15

Figure 4. Schematic of transverse tensile strength test.

requires the failure modes must be interlaminar shear. The

Figure 3. CF/PEEK laminates molding process. CF/PEEK: carbon
fiber/polyetheretherketone.
preliminary exploration and other empirical conclu-
sions.17,18 The setting of factors and levels are presented
in Table 2. The laminates were fabricated according to the
process in Figure 3. Each laminate was molded by 16 plies
of prepregs with a unidirectional stacking. First, the lami-
nates were heated from room temperature to molding tem-
peratures (370 C, 400 C, and 430 C) with an average rate
of 5 C min1 and then the molding pressures were adjusted
to the set values (1, 2, and 3 MPa) in about 80 s. The
laminates were held at the molding temperature for differ-
ent times (0, 15, and 30 min), and the molding pressures
were maintained till the laminates were cooled to room
temperature. The designed dimension was 170 mm (length)
 120 mm (width)  2 mm (thickness), and the final
thicknesses were approximately1.7–2.1 mm.
Tested methods
The usual mechanical properties index for polymer matrix
composites including tensile strength and ILSS. It was
found that the main failure modes of unidirectional CF/
PEEK laminates were plastic deformation in the ILSS test,
that not meet the Chinese standard (JC/T 773-2010), which
tensile strength test can be divided into lengthways tensile
(along the fiber direction) and transverse tensile (vertical to
the fiber direction). The lengthways tensile strength is
related to the strength of the carbon fiber to a large extent.
In comparison, the failure modes of transverse tensile are
resin breakage and fiber–matrix interfacial debonding,
which have nothing to do with the strength of carbon fiber.
Therefore, the influence of process parameters on the mold-
ing quality can be reflected better by the transverse tensile
strength and it was selected as the primary characterization
method in this study. The tests were conducted according to
the Chinese standard (GB/T 3354-2014). The schematic of
the transverse tensile test is shown in Figure 4. The lami-
nates were cut to a standard test size of 170 mm(length) 
25 mm(width), and the thickness was the primary dimen-
sion of the laminates (1.7–2.1 mm). The CMT5105 test
apparatus (Sansi Taijie Co., Ltd., China) was employed,
set to an upward loading speed of 1 mm min1. Five speci-
mens of each group of the process parameters were tested
and the transverse tensile strength (st) values of the tested
specimens were calculated according to equation (1). The
arithmetic mean value of the five specimens was taken as
the transverse tensile strength of each experiment group.
Pmax
st ¼ ð1Þ
wh
where Pmax is the maximum load (N), w is the specimen
width (mm), and h (mm) is the specimen thickness (mm).
The transverse tensile elastic modulus Et (MPa) of the
samples is calculated according to the following equation:
DPl
Et ¼ ð2Þ
whDl
4 Composites and Advanced Materials
where l (mm) is the gauge length of the extensometer
within the sample working segment, DP (N) is the load
increment, and Dl (mm) is the deformation increment of
the extensometer within the gauge length corresponding to
DP.
The thicknesses of laminates were measured to reflect
the effect of molding process parameters on the flow–com-
paction behavior of the material. Considering the symme-
try, six points of each laminate (Figure 5) were measured
by a vernier caliper. Their arithmetic mean value was taken
as the thickness of each laminate.
To observe the fiber–matrix interfacial bonding beha-
vior of the materials under different molding process para-
meters, a scanning electron microscope (model: TESCAN
MIRA3 LMU, Czech, Europe) was used.
Figure 5. Thickness measurement position of laminate.
Figure 6. The influence of forming process parameters on the transverse tensile properties: (a) molding temperature, (b) molding
pressure, and (c) holding time. Error bounds: standard deviation.
Results and discussion
Mechanical properties analysis
The influence of molding temperature on the transverse
tensile properties of laminates is shown in Figure 6(a).
When the molding temperature increased from 370 C to
400 C, the transverse tensile strength grew from 95.13 MPa
to 104.68 MPa, increasing 10.0%. According to the visc-
osity–temperature equation of the liquid (equation (3)),
resin’s viscosity decreased with the increase of the tem-
perature within a certain temperature range, which
improved the flowability of the resin, the fibers were better
infiltrated during the molding process, and the laminates
were better consolidated.
 
E
 ¼ 1 exp ð3Þ
RT
where 1 is a constant, E is the activation energy absorbed
by the resin, and R is the molar gas constant. When the
molding temperature increased to 430 C, the transverse
tensile strength weakened significantly with a decrease of
14.4%. This may because the properties of the resin were
affected by the high temperature, such as viscosity rise and
thermal degradation, which led to the weakening of the
mechanical properties of resin and the fiber–matrix inter-
facial bonding strength.
Dai et al.
The variation of the tensile property with molding pres-
sure is shown in Figure 6(b). It showed a rising trend,
indicating that a higher molding pressure could promote
the resin flow. The flow of resin between fibers conforms
to the law of Newtonian fluid in porous media. The seepage
velocity can be described by the Darcy seepage equation.
S x dPr
n¼  ð4Þ
 dx
where n is the flow velocity of the resin in the x direction,
Sx is the permeability in this direction, and Pr is the resin
pressure.
The effect of holding time to tensile properties is shown
in Figure 6(c). When the holding time increased from 0 min
to 15 min, the transverse tensile strength increased by 9%,
extending the holding time to 30 min, the growing rate of
transverse tensile strength decreased to 6.3%, this indicates
that the extension of the holding time was conducive to the
full flow of resin, so that it could infiltrate the fiber better,
but the effect decreased with the extension of holding time.
The correlation of molding process parameters,
molding thickness, and mechanical properties
The molding thickness and mechanical properties of this
nine group of laminates are shown in Figure 7. It can be
Figure 7. Relationship between molding thickness and transverse
tensile strength. Error bounds: standard deviation.
Figure 8. Fiber–matrix interfacial bonding behavior of different molding temperatures: (a) 370 C, (b) 400 C, and (c) 430 C.
5
summarized that molding pressure and holding time have a
significant influence on the molding thickness of the lami-
nate. Specifically, molding thickness becomes thinner with
the increasing of molding pressure and the extension of
holding time. For example, experiments 3, 5, and 9 had a
relatively thinner molding thickness (about 1.8 mm) com-
pared with others, in which the molding pressure was no
lower than 2 MPa and the holding time was no less than 15
min, whereas the molding thickness of the other experi-
ments was approximately 2 mm.
Globally, the correlation between the laminates’ thick-
ness and mechanical properties can be discussed in two
parts. The first part is experiments 1–6 (molding tempera-
ture of 370 C or 400 C), the transverse tensile strength is
inversely related to the molding thickness, thinner thick-
ness indicates that the resin flowed more fully so that the
laminates were better consolidated.8 The second part is
experiments7–9 (molding temperature of 430 C), there is
no obvious correlation between the molding thickness and
transverse tensile strength, and the test results fluctuate
more intense compared with the first part. The litera-
tures11,19 pointed out that the matrix of CF/PEEK compo-
site would begin to undergo thermal degradation when the
composite is fabricated at high temperatures (415–450 C).
Hence, the transverse tensile strength is affected by the
matrix properties, and the correlation between molding
thickness and transverse tensile strength is more accidental
in the second stage.
Microscopic analysis
The fiber–matrix interfacial bonding behavior of transverse
tensile fracture under different molding temperatures is
shown in Figure 8. Generally, the failure mode of the PEEK
matrix exhibited ductile behavior, part of the carbon fibers
were exposed due to the high viscosity of PEEK at 370 C,
so the matrix could not infiltrate the fibers very well,11 part
of the fractures were generated at the fiber–matrix interface
due to the low bonding strength. As shown in Figure 8(b),
the fibers were fully impregnated by the resin at 400 C,
there was no fiber exposed, and the fracture occurred only
in the resin. What is more, many resin cusps remained on
the surface of the carbon fiber and verified further that there
6 Composites and Advanced Materials

was an excellent interfacial bonding strength. There was no
residual cusp on the fiber when the molding temperature
was 430 C, indicating that the resin broke directly during
the tensile test, and this might because its properties were
affected by high temperature.
Taguchi analysis
Range analysis is a method that can directly reflect the
influence of process parameters on the experimental
results. The significance of the factors can be represented
by the R-value (the range between the maximum and min-
imum values of the tested results of a given factor). The
analysis results are presented in Table 3. It can be seen
that the effects of factors A (molding temperature) and C
(holding time) on the transverse tensile strength are more
significant. The R-value of factor B (molding pressure) is
only 8.09, much smaller than that of factors A and C. This
is perhaps because the molding temperature and holding
time can affect the resin’s flowability and infiltration to
the fiber, while the molding pressure cannot affect the
properties of resin itself. It can be concluded from the
range analysis that the optimal molding process para-
meters array is A2B3C3, namely the molding temperature
of 400 C, the molding pressure of 3 MPa, and the holding
time of 30 min.
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) could analyze the effect
of process parameters on the mechanical properties
Table 3. Tested results of transverse tensile strength.
quantitatively, which were achieved by F-value detection.
The calculation details were described in the relevant liter-
ature.20,21 The F-value of a given factor represents its sig-
nificance to the test results. The F-value higher than the
critical value(F0.01(2,2) ¼ 99.01, get from the critical value
table) indicating that the current factor had a significant
effect on the experimental result. The analysis results are
presented in Table 4. It can be seen that molding tempera-
ture and holding time have a significant influence on the
transverse tensile strength. The significance of factors to
transverse tensile strength is molding temperature, holding
time, and molding pressure in sequence, which is consistent
with the results of range analysis. Because within a certain
molding pressure range, the resin’s properties and its infil-
tration to the fiber are more easily affected by the molding
temperature and the holding time, and their effect on the
molecular motion and viscoelastic behavior of the polymer
are equivalent, as per the time-temperature equivalence
principle.
Verification of optimization results
To verify the optimization results, a laminate was fabricated
according to the optimized process parameters (the molding
temperature of 400 C, molding pressure of 3 MP, and hold-
ing time of 30 min). Its properties were compared with
experiment No. 5, which has the maximum transverse tensile
strength in the Taguchi L9(33) test array and fabricated with
the molding temperature of 400 C, molding pressure 2 MPa,

Factor
Transverse tensile
Text number A B C strength (MPa)
No. 1 1 1 1 84.73
No. 2 1 2 2 93.43
No. 3 1 3 3 107.24
No. 4 2 1 2 102.85
No. 5 2 2 3 108.16
No. 6 2 3 1 103.03
No. 7 3 1 3 94.41
No. 8 3 2 1 79.47
No. 9 3 3 2 95.06
Mean value I 95.13 94.00 89.08
Mean value II 104.68 93.69 97.11
Mean value III 89.65 101.78 103.27
Figure 9. Comparison of properties before and after optimiza-
R 15.03 8.09 14.19
tion: (a) the best process in the Taguchi L9(33) test array and
(b) the optimized process. Error bounds: standard deviation.

Table 4. ANOVA table for the transverse tensile strength.

Factor Sum of squares Degree of freedom F-value F0.01(2,2) Significance

A (molding temperature) 347.16 2 206.64 99.01 Yes
B (molding pressure) 126.06 2 75.04 99.01 No
C (holding time) 303.78 2 180.21 99.01 Yes
Error 1.68 2
ANOVA: analysis of variance.
Dai et al.
and holding time of 30 min, as shown in Figure 9. The
difference between these two groups of parameters was that
the molding pressure increased from 2 MPa to 3 MPa, the
thickness of the optimized one was further compressed to
1.78 mm, and the transverse tensile strength was slightly
increased by 2.91%. According to the ANOVA results, the
molding pressure had no significant effect on the transverse
tensile strength. The verification experiment was consistent
with the optimization results.
Conclusions
The molding process parameters of CF/PEEK composites
were optimized based on the Taguchi method, three molding
process parameters, molding temperature, molding pressure,
and holding time were selected as the experimental factors.
The main conclusions are as follows:
(1) The transverse tensile strength increased by 10.0%
as the molding temperature increased from 370 C
to 400 C and decreased by 14.4% as the molding
temperature increased to 430 C continually. The
transverse tensile strength increased by 15.9% as
the holding time increased from 0 min to 30 min.
The transverse tensile strength was relatively
insensitive to the molding pressure.
(2) The significance of the three factors to the molding
quality was molding temperature, holding time,
and molding pressure in sequence.
(3) The optimal molding process parameters of CF/
PEEK composites were molding temperature of
400 C, molding pressure of 3 MPa, and holding
time of 30 min. By this process, the transverse
tensile strength could reach to 111.31 MPa, which
increased by 2.91% compared with the maximum
value obtained by the orthogonal experiments.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support
for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This
work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China
(No: 51675538).
ORCID iD
Lihua Zhan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4664-4085
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