Influence of the production parameters on the transversal permeability of preforms produced with automated fibre placement

Automated Fibre Placement has been established for serial production of complex CFRP parts within the last years. While most applications are using conventional prepreg and autoclave production chains the potential of dry bindered materials is turning into focus. Following the preforming process, usually one of the numerous liquid composite moulding technologies with transversal impregnation direction is used. A challenge still is the reproducible and reliable impregnation of the compact and undulation free preforms. The dominating parameter for this process is the transversal permeability. Within the presented work, several production parameters of the AFP production process such as the compaction force and binder activation temperature have been investigated and their influence on the transversal permeability was tested. Moreover, the effect of the distribution of gaps within the preform, known as staggering, was analysed.