engleski

Comparison of the Hybrid Composites Production Processes for Application in the Automotive Industry

Polymer composites are used in the industry for more than fifty years ; they are combined from two or more materials of different properties, producing a product with the characteristics different from any of the individual components. One of the main advantages of polymer composites is their low weight, which is beneficial in the automotive industry for reducing the overall vehicle weight. In addition to the low weight, for applications in the automotive industry, products need to fulfil other requirements, such as high strength, rigidity and high impact strength, so hybrid polymer composites are increasingly being used. There are a lot of different production processes for production of composites and choosing the best one for a particular application is sometimes difficult. The main objective is to produce a composite with the lowest resin content and residual air bubbles. Therefore, the most common are vacuum production process, but sometimes they are not good enough because the fibres are insufficiently impregnated with resin especially when hybrid composites laying-up are used. Hybrid composite plates shown in this paper were made by laying-up carbon and aramid fibres in a different layers and angles. After the plates were made by vacuum bagging and compression moulding, mechanical properties were tested to determine which production process is better for production of that type of hybrid composite.

automotive industry, hybrid polymer composite, compression moulding, vacuum bagging

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