Influence of the manufacturing technology on impact and flexural properties of GF/PP commingled twill fabric laminates

The purpose of this work is to evaluate the influence of the manufacturing technology on the mechanical behaviour of composite laminates from commingled fabrics consisting of glass and polypropylene fibers. In this regard, non-isothermal and isothermal moulding technologies were used for manufacturing flat laminates with different thicknesses and stacking sequences. The laminates were characterized by flex and impact tests up to complete penetration; the data of penetration energy were also used to estimate the goodness of fit of a prediction model present in literature. The results obtained from the mechanical tests show the effectiveness of the isothermal moulding technology compared to the non-isothermal one, which is extremely important considering that the preheating phase is avoided with the first technology, saving on equipment and processing times.