Paper number 1260

DEVELOPMENT OF MULTI-FUNCTIONAL SENSOR FOR RESIN TRANSFER MOLDING

S. Motogi, T. Itoh, T. Fukuda, K. Yamagishi, S. Kitade and H. Morita

Department of Intelligent Materials Engineering, Osaka City University
3-3-138, Sugimoto, Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka, 558-8585, Japan
Research Institute, Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries
Shin-nakahara, Isogo-ku Yokohama 235-8501, Japan

Summary

A multi-functional sensor for RTM process monitoring is developed. The sensor can be used for flow front detection of the resin at the resin filling stage as well as for conventional cure monitoring at the curing stage by measuring dielectric properties of the matrix resin. A comb-shaped electrode sensor has been used for cure monitoring e.g., in autoclave processing of advanced composites. It measures the dielectric response of resin existing in the vicinity of electrodes between which one applies an alternating voltage. The newly developed sensor is also comb-shaped electrodes but sufficiently long to cover the RTM die dimensions. It is found that the dielectric loss factor response of the sensor linearly changes with the wet length of long array of electrodes, therefore it serves as the resin front sensor if it is embedded in the die of RTM. It is also shown that the two dimensional flow can be monitored with sufficient accuracy by the newly developed sensors.

Keywords

RTM, resin front sensor, cure monitoring, dielectric sensor, permeability, Darcy's law, smart manufacturing.