Abstract

With the aim of improving composites manufacturing process costs and properties, in order to compete with others materials, a new process of impregnation, compaction and curing of fibre glass reinforcing composites, has been developed. This new process based on UV curing prepregs could be an alternative to the traditional manufacturing process, including infusion process and autoclave curing.

These new process consists of two stages. First, the automated manufacturing of the UV curing prepregs. Second, the compaction of the composite by means of application of pressure and UV radiation giving rise to the finished part.

In this work, the UV prepregs manufacturing process will be analysed, and the effect of the control parameters of the all process, composed by impregnation, resin content adjustment and precuring, will be analysed. The durability of different manufactured UV prepregs and the mechanical behaviour of the resulted composite will be also studied. Finally, the prototypes necessary to the automation of the two stages of the process will be described.