High-Rate Automated Fiber Placement Followed By Vacuum Bag Only Consolidation of Semi-Crystalline Thermoplastic Composites

Composite materials have tremendous potential in the design and manufacture of commercial aircraft due to their high strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight properties. However, the use of composite materials is currently limited by high cost and long manufacturing time. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) initiated the Hi-rate Composite Aircraft Manufacturing (HiCAM) project to investigate promising composite processing technologies with a goal of vastly improving composite commercial aircraft manufacturing rate (4 to 6 times faster than current production rates). High-rate (>0.75 m/s) laser assisted automated fiber placement (AFP) of thermoplastics followed by out of autoclave consolidation is a key technology that could increase the speed of composite manufacturing. In this work, two semi-crystalline thermoplastic composite materials [carbon fiber/polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and carbon fiber/polyetherketoneketone (PEKK)] were placed by AFP at 0.76 m/s (1800 in./min.). Following placement, each material was consolidated via three consolidation cycles in an oven (reduced, nominal, and extended duration) as well as in an autoclave for comparison. For each material/consolidation cycle, photomicrography and ultrasonic inspections were performed to determine panel quality. Mechanical properties (short beam strength) were also measured.