DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW METHOD FOR COMPOSITE TUBE PRODUCTION

Metallic materials are used in many fields of engineering applications, but sometimes they areinsufficient in terms of lightness. Therefore, in many studies, material types that will replacemetallic materials are investigated and tendency towards composite materials is increasing.Composite materials are preferred in terms of both mechanical properties and lightness.Composite materials are produced in different ways. Generally, three different methods areused for composite materials. These are; hand lay-up method, filament winding and vacuuminfusion method. Sometimes the shape of the composite material can be the reason that affectsits production method. In cylindrical tube production, filament winding method is largely used.In our study, epoxy resin matrix fiber reinforced cylindrical tubes were tried to be produced byvacuum infusion method. It is stated how the difficulties encountered in the templates used inthe production of composite circular tubes in vacuum infusion method were solved. Despite thewax applied to the metal templates, which has a separating function, the fiber and epoxy resinformed a whole with the metal and formed a hybrid composite material. In other words, thecomposite tube adhered to metal. No matter how much pressure was applied to the metal andfibers, they did not separate from each other. Even cutting the metal did not provide a solution.Dissolving by taking advantage of the temperature difference, namely expansion, has not beentried because it would create a second cure for composites. This has been tried to be overcomeby using cardboard tubes. When choosing cardboard tubes, care has been taken to choose thickcardboards that will withstand the power of the vacuum infusion pump. The reason for choosingcardboard tubes is that cardboard has the ability to dissolve in water. As a result, the producedcomposites were thrown into water and the cardboard tube that dispersed in water wasdissolved, leaving only the composite tube behind.