Method of manufacturing a composite part comprising a core and UHMWPE skin regions
AssigneeMitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials Composites AG
InventorBurak Baser
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Abstract
A method of manufacturing a composite part comprising a core and at least one skin region formed of a low friction UHMWPE skin polymer attached thereto, by: a) providing a mold with a heatable mold cavity; b) loading into the mold cavity UHMWPE powder followed by a core element having a surface with at least one contacting region provided with a plurality of anchoring sites, loading onto the core element, a layer of UHMWPE in powder form adjacent the contacting region, and applying a heat pressing step to melt the skin polymer powder to form a molten skin polymer matrix, and cooling to solidify the skin polymer matrix forming a skin region mechanically engaged into anchoring sites of the core element.
Claims13
A method of manufacturing a composite part comprising a core, and two skins formed of a low-friction UHMWPE thermoplastic polymer with a single elevated temperature high pressure consolidation, the method comprising the following steps:
- a) providing a mold having upper and lower surfaces;
- b) producing a consolidatable fiber reinforced layup by the steps of
- b)i) introducing UHMWPE powder onto the lower surface of the mold;
- b)ii) introducing a lower nonwoven fleece core element with surfaces each having at least one contacting region comprising a plurality of anchoring sites, onto the UHMWPE powder introduced in step b)i);
- b)iii) optionally introducing one or more woven or non-woven fiber reinforcing layers containing glass fibers, basalt fibers, carbon fibers, aramid fibers, and mixtures thereof, as reinforcing fibers, wherein the one or more woven or non-woven fiber reinforcing layers further optionally comprise one or more thermoplastic fibers which melt and penetrate recesses and cavities of the one or more woven or non-woven reinforcing layers during consolidation in step c);
- b)iv) if at least one woven or non-woven fiber reinforcing layers has been added, selecting the one or more woven or non-woven fiber reinforcing layers such that an uppermost non-woven fleece with anchoring sites is present;
- b)v) introducing UHMWPE powder onto the nonwoven core element;
- c) consolidating the consolidatable fiber reinforced layup in the mold at an elevated temperature and a pressure of 20 to 60 bar to produce a consolidated fiber reinforced layup by causing UHMWPE to intermix with the anchoring sites;
- and
- d) cooling the consolidated fiber reinforced layup to solidify the skin polymer matrix to form a skin region mechanically engaged into the anchoring sites of the core element forming a composite part, and removing the composite part having a UHMWPE bottom skin and a UHMWPE top skin,
- wherein the lower non-woven fleece of step b) ii) and non-woven fleece with anchoring sites of step b)iv) both comprise thermoplastic fibers.
A method of manufacturing a composite part comprising a core and two skin regions formed of a low-friction UHMWPE thermoplastic polymer, the method comprising the following steps:
- a) providing a mold with a heatable mold cavity;
- b) loading into the mold cavity UHMWPE powder, followed by loading a core element which is a solid or hollow body having a surface with at least one contacting region provided with a plurality of anchoring sites which are recesses, rims or under-cuts in the solid or hollow body, and loading into the mold cavity UHMWPE powder over the core element, embedding the anchoring sites;
- c) applying a heat pressing step whereby the UHMWPE powder is melted to form a molten skin polymer matrix;
- d) cooling following heat pressing, whereby the melted UHMWPE solidifies to form a skin region mechanically engaged into the anchoring sites of the core element forming the core.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.