Step Pultrusion
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Step Pultrusion A. Langella & R. Carbone & M. Durante
Received: 4 December 2011 / Accepted: 22 December 2011 / Published online: 21 January 2012 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012
Abstract The pultrusion process is an efficient technology for the production of composite material profiles. Thanks to this positive feature, several studies have been carried out, either to expand the range of products made using the pultrusion technology, or improve its already high production rate. This study presents a process derived from the traditional pultrusion technology named “Step Pultrusion Process Technology” (SPPT). Using the step pultrusion process, the final section of the composite profiles is obtainable by means of a progressive cross section increasing through several resin cure stations. This progressive increasing of the composite cross section means that a higher degree of cure level can be attained at the die exit point of the last die. Mechanical test results of the manufactured pultruded samples have been used to compare both the traditional and the step pultrusion processes. Finally, there is a discussion on ways to improve the new step pultrusion process even further. Keywords Polymer-matrix composite . Pultrusion technology . Step pultrusion . Mechanical testing
1 Introduction The pultrusion process is a technology for the production of composite material profiles and it was patented in the United States in 1951 [1]. This technology allows the manufacturing of composite materials having a constant cross section. In a typical pultrusion process, Fig. 1, the reinforcement fibres pass through a resin bath in the impregnation process. The impregnated fibres then enter a heated die where the curing process of the liquid resin takes place; the cured composite is then pulled through the die by a pulling system [2]. A. Langella (*) : R. Carbone : M. Durante Department of Materials and Production Engineering, University of Naples “Federico II”, Piazzale V. Tecchio,80, 80125 Naples, Italy e-mail: [email protected]
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Appl Compos Mater (2012) 19:901–912
Fig. 1 Traditional pultrusion manufacturing system scheme
The application of the pultrusion technology is currently concerned with the mass production of components in several fields, such as: recreational/sport, electrical, transport, construction and other fields in which high corrosion resistance is a key objective [3, 4]. During the 2006 European Pultrusion Technology Association (EPTA) Conference in Budapest, it emerged that there will be a progressive transfer of the pultrusion manufacturing process from the developed Western countries to the Eastern European and Asiatic countries, thanks to lower labour costs and the increased demand in these regions of the world [4]. The Western countries which developed the pultrusion technology from the mid 1900s onwards, are now concentrating their research on developing new production machinery that enables them to produce either poltruded profiles from thermoplastic resins or profiles without a planar axis [5
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