Determination of The Heating Homogeneity of Infrared Cured Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics(CFRPs)

Abstract

Elevated temperature is a crucial step of thermoset and thermoplastic curing of fiber reinforced plastics(FRPs). Heating is conventionally applied by convection which is based on heating a gas by using electric resistances. In this study the homogeneity of the infrared heating was investigated. Twill style CFRP pre-pregs were stacked and the temperature was elevated with infrared heater at different distances and powers. The temperature profile was monitored by thermal camera and the homogeneity of the temperatures on the product was determined by a previously proposed heating profile index (HPI). Results showed that infrared curing performance ad homogeneity strongly depends on distance and power.