Filament wound products made with thermoplastic matrix towpregs

Abstract

Cost-effective glass-reinforced thermoplastic matrix towpregs produced by a powder coating line that were used to manufacture composite pipes by filament winding. A conventional 6 axes filament-winding equipment was adapted for processing such structures. The influence of the filament winding speed and mandrel temperature on the composite final properties was studied in the present work. An optimized processing window was established by comparing the composite theoretical expected mechanical properties with the experimentally obtained ones. The final properties determined on the produced pipes and structures and the technological changes introduced to the conventional filament-winding equipment will be presented and discussed. Besides the processing description and conditions, it will be presented the relationship between processing conditions and mechanical properties.