Fiber mat deformation in liquid composite molding. I: Experimental analysis

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Abstract
When a resin in injected into the mold in liquid composite molding, the preplaced fiber mat may deform near the inlet gate because of the high momentum carried by the injected fluid. A fiber free region near the gate followed by the fiber mat deformation may emerge. This phenomenon is most likely to occur when the stacked fiber mats have low permeability and the resin has high viscosity. A set of mold filling experiments were carried out using an instrumented metal mold and a small transparent mold to investigate the fiber mat deformation during mold filling. Experimental results showed that the fiber mat deformation was limited to a small region near the gate and that deformation greatly reduced the molding pressure. A forced fiber mat deformation employing a modified gate design was proposed to facilitate mold filling in liquid composite molding.