Nope. First, I'm not curing anything whatsoever; as I said, these are thermoplastics. It's simply a melt/freeze cycle. And I could not possibly care less about a smooth surface.
Second, if all I said could be deduced from logic, we wouldn't be here now, inasmuch as you have produced nothing...
So it's a polymer composite, but the reinforcement fibers are crazy strong and stiff (for a polymer). Yarn moduli are well in excess of 1000 cN/dtex. So while the matrix undoubtedly flows some, and the fibers are known to shift around some, it isn't a monolithic block of polymer that can flow...
CompositePro: I just reread your post and realized I had not made things clear regarding my process, including in my response. Sorry.
I'm using the pressure film in the press while the unconsolidated composite laminate is in there too. So I'm placing the film between my compliant part and the...
Usually I'm using a 1/16" sheet of silicone rubber already, so gap is not an issue. But even when not using the rubber, I'm measuring pressure while pressing a polymer/polymer composite (read: compliant) so there are no gaps. So the film is indeed indicating pressure as desired. I just need to...
Thanks for the response, Rob.
I've tried option 1 before, and it works okay, but I'm fairly sure that the pressure distribution at temperature is different than when pressed cold, due to increased compliance and migration of the matrix. However, it absolutely has been useful for getting a sense...
Hello,
I'm dealing with a thermoplastic composite hot-pressing operation, and I want to be able to quantify applied pressure as a function of location across the surface of my composite plate.
Sensor Products makes a nice film product called Prescale that does this very nicely with ink-filled...
