THIS PAPER DESCRIBES THE DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF A THIN, DISPOSABLE PRESSURE SENSOR DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR MONITORING POINTWISE THROUGH-THE-THICKNESS CONSOLIDATON FORCES DEVELOPED DURING COMPOSITE PROCESSING. THE UNIQUE POSTAGE STAMP-SIZED SENSOR (11.1 MM DIAMETER ACTIVE GAGE AREA AND 0.31 MM THICKNESS) CAN BE PLACED DIRECTLY AT POINTS IN OR ON A LAMINATE WHERE PRESSURE DATA IS DESIRED. THE SENSOR'S SMALL DIMENSIONS AND LOW COST PERMIT IT TO BE TREATED AS A DISPOSABLE ITEM IN AEROSPACE AND OTHER COMPOSITE FABRICATION APPLICATIONS. THIS PAPER ILLUSTRATED THE USE OF THE SENSOR AS A MEANS OF MEASURING PRESSURES DEVELOPED INSIDE A DIE DURING THE PULTRUSION OF A THERMOPLASTIC STRUCTURE FROM GRAPHITE/ULTEM PREPREG. IN ADDITION, SENSOR DATA FROM SEVERAL OTHER EXPERIMENTS DESIGNED TO MEASURE COMPACTION FORCE VERSUS AMOUNT OF CONSOLIDATION OF SEVERAL DIFFERENT THERMOPLASTIC MATERIALS IS ILLUST
| Number of Pages : | 8 |
| Published : | 06/01/1990 |
