Production of powder coated towpregs and composites

Abstract

An efficient and cost effective dry coating process was developed to deposit polymer powders on continuous fibers and produce thermoplastic matrix towpregs to be processed into composites. The technological solutions used in the coating line construction and the influence of the processing parameters on manufactured glass fiber reinforced polypropylene (GF/PP) towpregs are detailed in this paper. Composites were produced from characterized (GF/PP) towpregs using the hot plate compression molding. The mechanical properties determined on the composites are compared with theoretical values predicted by using the Classical Lamination Theory (CLT) using the experimentally determined raw materials contents and tensile properties.