Composite Manufacture

Our conveyor belt cutter permits automatic, precise cutting of all types of dry fabrics and prepreg tapes. The cutter can handle complex shapes with ease and helps to minimise scrap by optimised arrangement of parts to be cut. The machine’s flexibility permits new research opportunities such an introducing defined discontinuities in preforms to simulate discontinuous in press moulded preforms. Due to its precision this cutter can be used to produce composite parts with accurately positioned features (e.g. ply cuts, ply drops and holes) which can be required, for example, in the validation of finite element models.

• Standard dxf files used as input.
• Max. cutting width: 1524 mm 
• Max. cutting speed: 1000 mm/s 
• Accuracy: ± 0.1 mm
• Repeatability:  ± 0.1 mm

Point of Contact: Dr Frank Gommer (f.gommer@imperial.ac.uk)

Our autoclave is able to process almost any thermoset and thermoplastic material. A maximum temperature of 450°C allows even most challenging thermoplastics such as PPS, PEEK and PEI to be processed. This equipment can be used to produce test specimens under precisely controlled conditions or complex parts such as aerospace grade stiffeners and stringers.

Point of Contact: Dr Frank Gommer (f.gommer@imperial.ac.uk)

Our heated vacuum press allows out-of-autoclave processing of thermoset materials. The flexible silicone tooling is used for one-sided diaphragm forming of prepregs around mould tools with curing at temperatures up to 250°C. In addition, we are able to thermoform thermoplastic materials into complex shapes.

Point of Contact: Dr Frank Gommer (f.gommer@imperial.ac.uk)

With a maximum temperature of 400°C, our custom made laboratory press can not only be used to press mould and cure thermoset materials but also process high performance thermoplastics. A precise temperature and pressure control allows detailed research of the influence of manufacture parameters. Current research includes material compaction studies, investigation of varying bond-line thicknesses and press forming of multiple material panels for ballistic impact panels.

We are equipped with several means of performing liquid composite moulding processes. Our liquid infusion system uses the pressure pot principle  where a pre-mixed resin systems is drawn into the machine under vacuum, actively degassed, then dispensed under pressure into the mould cavity. The temperature is controllable up to 150°C in multiple zones including the hose which is ideal for controlled RTM processes.

Alternatively, we are able to use low tech solutions for resin infusion under flexible tooling (RIFT). A heated platen is used to infuse previously degassed resin into a dry fibre reinforcement. The temperature can be controlled to reduce the resin viscosity or to cure the part after infusion.

Our Maypole-type braiding machine is used for the manufacture of microbraids. The machine is equipped with two working heads which allows the production capacity to be increased. By varying combinations of up to 16 carriers and 8 horn gears, a number of different braid patterns can be realised such a diamond 1/1 and regular 2/2 patterns. By varying the cogwheel ratio, the braid architecture such as the braid angle can be exactly controlled. This set-up also allows combinations of different yarns in a single braid and over-braiding of longitudinal yarns. Any custom combination of yarns can be prepared using our tension controlled rewinding unit.

We have specialised equipment to perform research on repairs of advanced composite structures. These repairs can be on flat and curved surfaces as well as on solid composite structures or sandwich panels. After precisely machining out individual layers of a damaged structure, we can then bond patches under controlled heat and vacuum pressure in an out-of-autoclave process to achieve high quality repairs.

Point of Contact: Dr Frank Gommer (f.gommer@imperial.ac.uk)

Point of Contact: Dr Frank Gommer (f.gommer@imperial.ac.uk)

For fabrication of multifunctional materials we have a furnace which is used to pyrolise materials under an inert atmosphere.

Technical Details: 

• Lenton (ECF 12/45) furnace
• 42 litre capacity
• maximum temperature of 12000C
• inert (nitrogen) atmosphere. 

Point of Contact: Dr Sang Nguyen (s.nguyen06@imperial.ac.uk)