A novel process for cost effective manufacturing of fiber metal laminate with textile reinforced pCBT composites and aluminum alloy

A novel process is proposed for cost effective manufacturing of Fiber Metal Laminate (FML) with textile reinforced pCBT composites and aluminum alloy. To improve the adhesive bonding, prepregs with excellent impregnation quality and highly adhesive resin was introduced as interlayer for a 2/1 preform configuration, which is composed of two layers of dry carbon fabrics and one layer of aluminum alloy in between. The preform is impregnated by cyclic butylene terephthalate (CBT) resin melt in resin infusion process under isothermal molding conditions. After manufacturing, the FML was subjected to mechanical characterizations, including interlaminar shear test and Charpy impact test. The influence of various surface treatment methods on the Interlaminar Shear Strength (ILSS) was investigated for evaluation and enhancement of the novel process. Several comparisons between the novel process and the traditional autoclave process were performed to assess the performance of the novel process. The results indicate that the mechanical performance of the FML manufactured with the novel process could be even better than the one fabricated with traditional autoclave process, when the appropriate surface treatment and molding conditions were applied. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.