Relation between volumetric changes of unsaturated polyester resin and surface finish quality of fiberglass/unsaturated polyester composite panels
✍ Scribed by Loleï Khoun; Geneviève Palardy; Pascal Hubert
- Publisher
- Society for Plastic Engineers
- Year
- 2011
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 876 KB
- Volume
- 32
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0272-8397
- DOI
- 10.1002/pc.21157
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
Resin dimensional changes, including cure shrinkage and thermal expansion, highly influence the surface finish quality of composite parts. Low profile additives (LPA) are commonly incorporated in unsaturated polyester (UP) resins to compensate for resin shrinkage and obtain a high quality surface finish. In this study, the dimensional change of an UP resin with different LPA contents was characterized. Both resin cure shrinkage and resin thermal expansion were measured. A simple methodology was then developed to estimate the surface finish quality of panels, manufactured by resin transfer molding (RTM), based on the prediction of part thickness variation during the process. Results show good agreement with the experimental investigations. POLYM. COMPOS., 2011. © 2011 Society of Plastics Engineers