Cure Monitoring for Polymer Matrix Composites

Abstract

Polymer matrix composites are desirable engineering materials owing to their high strength and stiffness as well as corrosion resistance. The strength and stiffness achieved in these materials on a per unit mass basis (specific properties) surpasses that for metals by factors of up to 5¹. This has led to use of polymer composites in weight sensitive applications ranging from commercial and military aircraft to automobiles. Currently, the wider application of these materials is limited by product variability and the labor intensive, time consuming manufacturing processes. These factors are particularly troublesome in large volume production where the trend is towards more rapid processing that tends to exacerbate the problem of high rejection ratios. Recent advances in automated, computer controlled manufacture have been encouraging, although limited by the lack of suitable process monitoring.