Development of a thermocompression manufacturing process adapted to flax-epoxy laminated composites

Abstract

This study focuses on the optimization of a manufacturing process adapted to flax fibers based composites in which the components are controlled. Twelve plies unidirectional composites samples were prepared by thermocompression using unidirectional flax fibers and fluid epoxyamine resin. Temperature cycle was chosen to limit fibers degradation during fabrication. Different parameters have been studied to evaluate their influence on the mechanical properties of composites. 0° tensile specimens were tested at a 1mm/min crosshead speed. Measures were performed with a 50mm gauge length extensometer and a 100kN load cell. Furthermore, DSC analyses were performed to obtain information about cross-linking of the matrix. Properties are in accordance with the literature. Using 3bar pressure, fiber content was found to be around 46% (in volume). The density of the composite was measured using Archimedes’ principle and was valued to 1.28 when the fibers’ one was 1.45.