Surface Engineering of Thermoplastic Materials and Tooling

A method for preparing a mold tool able to accept a first ply laydown of thermoplastic fiber reinforced composite material for automated tape laying of in situ thermoplastic composite materials comprising:

• providing a non-porous metal mold tool having a mold surface;
• applying a texture to the mold surface of the mold tool;
• applying a release film to the texture on the mold surface of the mold tool;
• introducing a plurality of thermoplastic surface layer polymer particles to a plasma spray gun;
• and
• plasma spraying the thermoplastic surface layer polymer particles onto the release film on the mold tool during in situ tape laydown of a thermoplastic fiber reinforced composite material.

A method of automated tape laying of in situ thermoplastic fiber reinforced composite material comprising:

• providing a non-porous mold tool having a mold surface;
• applying a release film to the mold surface of the mold tool;
• introducing a plurality of thermoplastic surface layer polymer particles to a plasma spray gun;
• plasma spraying the thermoplastic surface layer polymer particles on the release film to form a thermoplastic surface layer polymer coating on the mold tool during in situ tape laydown of a first layer of thermoplastic fiber reinforced composite material having a first surface in contact with the thermoplastic surface layer polymer coating and a second surface;
• plasma spraying the thermoplastic surface layer polymer particles on the second surface of the first layer of thermoplastic fiber reinforced composite materials during the in-situ tape laydown of a subsequent layer of thermoplastic fiber reinforced composite material having a first surface and a second surface to form a thermoplastic polymer interlaminar layer between the second surface of the first layer of thermoplastic fiber reinforced composite material and the first surface of the subsequent layer of thermoplastic fiber reinforced composite material;
• and
• continued plasma spraying of thermoplastic surface layer polymer particles on the subsequent layer of thermoplastic fiber reinforced composite materials during the in situ tape laydown until desired number of layers of thermoplastic fiber reinforced composite material are applied to form a thermoplastic polymer interlaminar layer between each layer of thermoplastic fiber reinforced composite material.