Importance

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Abstract

Composite material consisting of reinforcing fibers are impregnated with polymeric matrices which may contain fillers and are then cured or thermoformed in a heating system such as an autoclave, press or oven. As the curing or thermoforming process proceeds, dielectric detection is employed to closely monitor critical process events such as the release of volatiles, chemical reactions such as cross linking, melting and solidification. Curves are generated by plotting factors of the dielectric loss of the polymer matrix versus time during the process, and these curves have a distinctive shape or signature that is characteristic of the particular polymer matrix being processed. These distinctive features or signatures have been found to correlate with critical process events, and these features are stored in a computer. During a cure cycle, the computer actuates the controls of the heating system so that the appropriate process actions or modifications will occur at the optimum time. The process controls are thereby adapted to produce an optimized, high quality product which is fairly independent of variations in raw material, preprocessing, tooling and the heating equipment.

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First Claim