Stamping of thermoplastic matrix composites

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Abstract
The recent growth in the use of polymer composites has resulted in the need for higher productivity manufacturing processes than are currently used in most thermoset composite production. One of the ways to provide increased productivity in composite manufacturing is to use thermoplastic matrix sheet composites. In this investigation the part forming characteristics of several thermopolastic composites were investigated. Glass fiber reinforced composites based on polypropylene, nylon 12, poly(butylene terephthalate), poly(ethylene terephthalate), poly(phenylene sulfide), and poly(etheretherketone) were examined. The processing conditions required for solid‐state stamping of these composites were determined. A temperature process window for stamping each of these composites was determined, and found to correlate with the melting and re‐crystallization peaks from differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) scans.