Study on the process of hot gas‐assisted <scp>GF</scp> / <scp>PA5X</scp> thermoplastic composites automated tape placement

Abstract The thermoplastic composites which in the automated tape placement (ATP) process are directly consolidated and formed in situ. The interlaminar bonding quality of the product is susceptible to the ATP process. Glass fiber‐reinforced bio‐based polyamides PA5X (GF/PA5X) tapes are used to prepare samples. The effect of process parameters on the interlaminar bonding quality is explored by peel test based on the principle of the response surface. A quadratic response surface model of hot gas temperature, placement speed, and roller force on the peel strength is established, and experiments are conducted to verify the accuracy of the model. The effect of process parameters and their coupling effect on the peel strength is obtained. The interlaminar bonding quality of the samples manufactured by ATP and compression molding are comparatively analyzed through peel and short beam shear tests. The results show that the best combination of process parameters obtained is: the hot gas temperature of 619°C, placement speed of 0.540 m/min, roller force of 684 N, and predicted peel strength of 9.89 N/10 mm. The peel and short beam shear strength of the samples manufactured by ATP is 9.96 N/10 mm and 34.2 MPa, reaching 66.0% and 60.0% of the samples manufactured by compression molding respectively. Highlights GF/PA5X thermoplastic composite tapes are used to prepare ATP samples. The effect of process parameters on the interlaminar bonding quality is explored. The micromorphology of the ATP samples is characterized. The ATP and compression molding samples are comparatively analyzed.