EM934 13 Accuracy and Distortion of Composite Parts and Tools: Causes and Solutions

author
CHRISTOPHER RIDGARD

Senior Vice President/Director The Advanced Composites Group, incorporated Owasso, Oklahoma

abstract
The basic mechanisms of distortion and dimensional errors which occur during the manufacture of composite prepreg parts and tooling are discussed and classified. Practical methods of quantifying and eliminating such errors are considered in relation to both structural part and tooling manufacture, which represent an alternative to the empirical methods used throughout the composites industry.

conference
Tooling for Composites 93 January 18-l 9, 1992 Pasadena, California

index terms
Components Curing Composite Materials
Tooling Tolerances

Laminates
Society of Manufacturing Engineers

1993
6 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Sponsored by Composites Manufacturing Association of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers P.O. Box 930 l Dearborn, Michigan 48121 Phone (313) 271-l 500

SME TECHNICAL PAPERS This Technical Paper may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without the express written permission of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. By publishing this paper, SME neither endorses any product. service or information discussed herein, nor offers any technical advice. SME specifically disclaims any warranty of reliability or safety of any of the information contained herein.

EM93-113

Introduction: This paper is concerned with the causes of distortion and dimensional errors which occur during the manufacture of prepreg composite moldings. The basic physical processes which cause such distortion are common to both composite tooling and composite part manufacture, although differences in construction and material characteristics dictate different approaches to dealing with these errors in each case. The observed errors generally arise from a combination of effects, regarding which much confusion exists within the composites industry. This has led to the almost exclusive use of empirical methods to compensate for manufacturing errors. This paper identifies the basic mechanisms of distortion in composite moldings and proposes methods by which these may be quantified and predicted.

EM93-113-2

2) Classification

of Moldino Errors in Midolane

Svmmetric

Laminates:

The following definitions apply to any laminate molding operation irrespective of whether the laminate produced is to be used as a mold tool or as an actual part. For convenience of terminology, the term model will be used to describe that which is being molded from, and tool will be used to describe the molding. (If the molding were to be used as a part, the term tool would be substituted for model, and part would be substituted for tool.) The molding operation is assumed to consist of an initial cure of a prepreg layup under pressure on the model to a demoldable state, possibly at elevated temperature, followed by demolding and a free standing postcure to some higher temperature.

The following

definitions

are proposed: ERRORS (Figure 1)

TYPE I - LINEAR DIMENSIONAL Arise from:

- Model thermal expansion during initial cure. - Model thermal lag during initial cure. - Laminate shrinkage during initial cure (thermal volumetric shrinkage). - Laminate shrinkage during postcure. TYPE II - INTRINSIC SPRINGBACK Arises from: or BENDING

contraction

and

chemical

DISTORTION

(Figure 2)

- Anisotropic dimensional changes within the laminate during initial cure and postcure, which are caused by both thermal and chemical volumetric changes. TYPE III - THERMOMECHANICAL Arises from: - Mechanical residual tensile stresses within the laminate caused by a combination of both a large model and fiber CTE mismatch & a large temperature change during initial cure. The presence of a clamping pressure between layup and model is an essential prerequisite for the generation of such stresses. DISTORTION (Figures 3a and 3b)

EM9 3-113-3

Type III Distortion

can be further subdivided Effects

into:

Type llla Linear Thermomechanical - Interlayer slippage relieves

fiber stresses

in a non-uniform

manner,

producing bending distortion.

Type lllb Geometric Thermomechanical Effects

- Where the fiber stresses are relieved or increased in a non-uniform manner by layer movement during consolidation over male or into female geometric features respectively. These various types of distortion are discussed in detail in the sections which follow. It should be noted that the above effects apply even to midolane svmmetric laminates. Distortion caused by laminate asymmetry is a separate phenomenon which is discussed in 3 below.

FIGURE

FflROR

I MODFJ

FXPANSlO N - INITIAL

CURF

SHRINKAGE

- POSTClJFiF

SHRlNKAGF

MASTER MODEL THERMAL EXPANSION OURINQ LAMINATE \ 1NlTlAL CURE

LAMINATE SHRINKAGE OLIRINQ INITIAL CURE FROM EXPANOEO MODEL SHAPE INCLUOINQ THERMAL AND CHEMICAL

LAMINATE DURING

SHRINKAGE POSTCURE WITH/ INTERACTION FROM CONSTRAINT SUBSTRUCTURE POSSISLE

MODEL SIZE AT ROOM TEUP.

i,
I/

TOOL LAMINATE SIZE AT ROOM TEUP

. . ___........-. DEMOLOINQ MASTER MODEL TOOL LAMINATE

TYPE

f LINEAR

DiMENSiONAL

ERRORS

TOOL

LAMINATE

MANUFACTURE

EM93-113-4
FIGURE 2
I

TYPE

II INTRINSIC SPRINGBACK DEFiNlTiONS

DIMENSIONAL CHANGES WITHIN

LAMINATE __ . ... __,...._....,_I -..-.
y---------I \ _..-._, --.._

1t
I

.\, .,

-....-......_._..., . 0, .

RGURE 3a

TYPE

IifA LINEAR

THERMOMECHANICAL
PRESSURE

DISTORTION

MODEL OR -3CL ZXPANDS FRIC:iON AT !NTERFACE

THERMALLY INOUCES

ON H EATING TO PREPGEG TENSILE FlGER STRESSES

CURE TEMP. IN LAYP

PRESSURE

LAYER

SLIPPAGE RELIEVES FIBER STRESSES PREFERENTIALLY :N LAYERS FURTHEST FROM MODEL/TOOL FACE NON-UNIFORM STRESSES LOCKED IN WHEN PREPREG CURES

CUREDPREPREG LAMINATE BOWS TOWARDS MODEL/TOOL FACE

EM93-113-5

FiGURE

3b

I I
I

I I

TYPE

IllB THERMOMECHANICAL

DISTORTION

MODEL OR TOOL EXPANSION CAUSES TENSILE STRESS IN PREPREG LAYERS. LAYER MOVEMENT DURING CONSOLlDATlON RESULTS IN NON-UNIFORM STRESS DISTRIBUTION INWARDS STRESS IN PLIES FURTHEST FROM TOOL FACE
CONSOLIDATION REDUCES

j
/

OUTER

PLIES

MOVE

THERMALLY FEEdALE

EXPANDED TOOL

OR MODEL

+
MALE TOOL

/ EXPANDED
OR MODEL

THERMALLY

INNER PLIES MOVE OUTWARDS CONSOLIDATION INCREASES STRESS IN PLIES FURTHEST FROM TOOL FACE

NON

UNIFORM

RESIDUAL

STRESS

DISTRIBUTION

LOCKED

IN

ON

CURE

CAUSES

BENDING

DISTORTION

OF MOLDING

3) Midplane

Asvmmetrv:

It is generally well understood that laminates which are not midplane symmetric will distort. Asymmetry of construction or stress distribution can arise for a number of reasons, such as: - The basic laminate construction is not symmetric. - Through thickness thermal gradients exist within the laminate during cure, typically because the model/tool is either a good insulator or has a high thermal mass. - The through thickness fiber distribution is non-uniform because resin was bled from the laminate bagged face.

The solutions

to the above are obvious,

namely:

- Use midplane symmetric laminates. - Avoid using surface coats, which cause - Avoid high thermal mass tooling and insulators to reach thermal ready state, prepreg will allow. - Use zero bleed prepreg systems as far

asymmetry. allow models/tools which are good. as far as the cure parameters of the as practically possible.

FiM93-113-6

4) Tvoe I - Linear errors - Midolane Svmmetric Laminates: 4.1 Error Eauations: The four major sources of linear dimensional errors in manufacturing of tool laminates from a master model may be defined as follows: ERROR el e2 SOURCE Model thermal expansion during laminate initial cure Model thermal lag during laminate initial cure Laminate thermal and chemical shrinkage during initial cure Laminate shrinkage during postcure The total linear dimensional error eL, in any dimension f is thus:

eL = e, - e2 - e3 - e4, where: e, = xm 6Tc

l l l

e2 = L fn (Laminate initial cure temperature, duration of cure, model thermal conductivity, model specific heat capacity, model geometry) e3 = wL 6Tc processing)
l l l

L + fn (Laminate construction,

resin chemistry, and initial cure

e4 = L fn (Laminate construction, resin chemistry, initial cure state, and postcure processing) where: oc = Linear CTE of model =y = Linear CTE of initially cured laminate 6Tc = Temperature rise from ambient during laminate initial cure

m93-113-7

eL

(e,

- ed

- (e,

+e4)

where e3 + e4 = total laminate shrinkage, i.e.

and e, - e2 = total model expansion

eL = model expansion - laminate shrinkage.

4.2 Tvoe I Errors in Toolina Manufacture:

In practice, the model expansion can usually be approximated by the term e, only, providing that the duration of the cure (i.e. time to gelation) is sufficient for the model to reach steady thermal state. For model materials which are good insulators, such as syntactic foams, steady state may take many hours or even days to be reached, particularly where 6Tc is large and where the model cross section is thick. A syntactic foam model, 1 foot thick? for example, will take approximately 200 hours to reach a condition approaching steady state when heated from 70F to 140F. For this reason, with this type of model, it is highly desirable to use laminate cure temperatures as low as possible - preferably no higher than 115OF - in order that the thermally expanded model shape will be predictable. Moreover, the use of higher cure temperatures frequently leads to model thermal cracking problems on cooldown, since the exterior of the model cools much more rapidly than the core: producing tensile stresses which often exceed the tensile strength of the tooling block or the adhesive used to bond the blocks together. Assuming the thermally expanded shape of the model can be approximated by ei alone (by keeping 6Tc & section thicknesses small), the tool laminate will shrink from the expanded model shape by an amount equal to e3 + e4. In practice, although both e3 & e4 include both thermal contraction and chemical volumetric change effects it is convenient to characterize a given laminate by a single in-plane shrinkage value which includes all of these effects! and which can be derived from a simple test. Because these shrinkage figures are typically very small - e.g. 0.05% for a carbon fiber/epoxy laminate data generated on a macro scale (by curing and measuring large laminates) is more reliable than data generated by laboratory techniques such as TMA. If e, is known (calculated from zr,, and 6Tc) and (e, f- e,) is measured: the final shape of the laminate can be predicted according to equation 1. Figure 4 shows Type I errors for Carbon Fiber/LTM12 prepreg tool laminates cured at different temperatures on different master model materials.

FIGURE 4

EM93-113-8

.040

ERROR PER FOOT FOR CARBON/LTMlP TOOLS POSTCURED TO 390 F FOR VARIOUS MASTER MODEL MATERIALS AND INITIAL CURE TIME V. TEMPERATURE ERROR PER FOOT (INCHES) INITIAL

CURE TIME

(HRSI

.030

25

.020

20

.oio

15

.ooo
! 1 ! 1 I I I I I I I I t ! ) I !

10

1.010
I i I

5
I I I

-.020

0 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130135 140 145 150 155 160 165 170 INITIAL CURE TEMP F TOOL SHRINKAGE ASSUMED AT .07% REFERENCE TEMPERATURE 70F
I I I

I :

I :

1 i

The model CTE values used to derive this chart were: Urethane block TB650 Aluminum Steel Monolithic Graphite 43x10 OF 20X-10 OF- 12x1060F1 7.5~10-~~F 1.5~lO~~F

LTM12 is a prepreg resin system manufactured by ACG! capable of curing to a demoldable condition at temperatures between 95 OF and 160 OF and having an end usage temperature above 400 OF after a 390 o F free standing postcure. For each model material, there is a particular initial cure temperature at which the modei expansion and laminate shrinkage are exactly equal and opposite, such that the dimensional error e; = 0. The optimum initial cure temperature for this particular material when cured on an epoxy syntactic foam tooling block TB650 (manufactured by ACG) is 105 3 F, which happens to be convenient for the LTM12 resin system since this represents an overnight cure. In contrast, the very much larger CTE of a typical urethane syntactic foam mode! (43~10~ F) requires an 85 F initial cure which would involve a cure time of several days. One interesting fact which is apparent from such charts is that the optimum shrinkage value for a tooling prepreg system is small, but not zero! since a zero shrinkage figure would require the prepreg to be cured at room temperature for an inconveniently long

EM93-113-9

duration for eL = 0 to be met. The shrinkage value for most high fiber content prepreg laminates is extremely small. If the laminate is constructed entirely from balanced biaxial woven prepregs, this figure is also completely independent of direction and of layer orientations, such that an all 0 layup has the same shrinkage value as a O/900/i450 layup. This does not apply if the layers are unbalanced between warp and fill (e.g. most satin weaves and all unidirectional materials) in which case in-plane shrinkage JJVJI vary with direction and with layer orientation. Since the laminate shrinkage is usually small and since for tool manufacture most master model materials have large CTEs, the zero error condition can only usually be met by carrying out the initial cure at a low temperature (e.g. < 140 F). First generation tooling prepreg systems requiring initial cure temperatures above 200F usually require thermally compensated master models which are smaller than the final desired size at room temperature. The disadvantage of this situation is that such a model can not then be used for the production of mold furniture or secondary tooling items such as trim fixtures, drill jigs, etc., unless these also are cured at the same temperature as the main tool - something which it is rarely convenient or cost effective to do. With the advent of second generation tooling systems which can be cured at mildly (e.g. 95F - 140F)? it is now possible to avoid the above situation and produce very accurate tools and models which have the same dimensions at room This allows features such as EOP lines and location bushings to be temperature. transferred directly and accurately from model to tool.

elevatedtemperatures

Type I errors are generally of much greater significance in tool manufacture than those arising from Types II or III (see below). This is particularly true for large tools where a support structure is generally attached to the tool face prior to demolding and postcure, which constrains the relatively flexible tool face! typically only L - 3% thick, against Type II &Type III bending distortions (as well as, of course: against gravity or handling induced distortion). Some care is required however, since some of the laminate shrinkage will occur during postcure, after the fully postcured substructure has been attached. The attachment method - such as wet laminated angles - therefore needs to be rigid enough to resist springback/bending distortion of the tool face plus gravity and service loads (and remain so during tool face postcure), but flexible enough to allow tool face shrinkage to occur. The interaction between tool face and substructure during a postcure is usually extremely complex and correct design is critical. For large tools, such as those for flight control surfaces which may be 20 to 60 in length, it may be necessary to selectively attach certain substructure members to the tool face before postcure, leaving other parts of the substructure (e.g. the longitudinal members) to be permanently attached only after postcure shrinkage is complete. In other cases it is possible to use substructure members - such as integrally molded hat section stiffeners - which are made from the same material as the tool face and are in the same partially cured state, such that both tool face and substructure shrink together by the same amount during postcure. A detailed discussion of tool face/substructure interaction is beyond the scope of this paper, however, a proper understanding of the phenomena involved is an essential

EM93-113-10

prerequisite

of good tool design.

4.3 Tvpe I Errors in Part Manufacture: The same phenomena responsible apply equally to pan manufacture. differences, namely that: for Type I errors in tool laminate manufacture There are: however, significant circumstantial

- The CTE of the tool material can be chosen to be close to that of the part {if the tool is correctly designed). - No substructure is generally attached to a part.

The first of the above two circumstances means that tool expansion does not generally cause large Type I errors (unlike the analogous mode/ expansion in tool manufacture) even though 6Tc is large. Thus tool expansion will be similar in magnitude although not equal to part shrinkage during cure and postcure (if there is one). The Type 1 error which results is thus generally small but not zero. In most applications! such errors are ignored at least in part because no shrinkage data will be available for the part itself unless specifically generated. Nevertheless, characterization of part shrinkage is possible, as discussed for tool laminate shrinkage in 4.2 above, and may be required in cases where the tolerances to be achieved dictate so. If tool and part CTEs are not matched however as, for example when curing carbon fiber epoxy parts from a steel tool: significant Type I errors will of course result. The effect of layer orientation on laminate shrinkage can be predicted from layer shrinkage data using classical lamination theory. Figure 5 shows predicted 0 thermal shrinkage values for O/900/+45 laminates made from 350F curing unidirectional carbon fiber epoxy prepregs. Although in this case cured layer CTE data was used to generate the results, exactly the same analytical method can be used to predict laminate shrinkage from both thermal and chemical effects providing measured layer shrinkage data is used. Note that the shrinkage values become very small for laminates with > 20% of 0 plies. Thermal contraction effects! such as those plotted in figure 5: typically account for 60% - 80% of the total shrinkage of a 350F curing carbon/epoxy laminate, with resin volumetric shrinkage effects accounting for the rest. The consequence of the second of the above two circumstances, namely the lack of a support structure, means that Type II and III errors are generally of greater significance for part manufacture than for tooling, although there are some exceptions to this rule.

EM93-113-U

FIGURE 5

% THERMAL SHRINKAGE 35OF-70F IN 0 DIRECTION

O/90/+45

UNIDIRECTIONAL

PREPREG

LAMINATES

CARBON FIBER/EPOXY LAMINATES - 350F CURE 0 THERMAL SHRINKAGE EXCLUDING RESIN CHEMICAL VOLUMETRIC CHANGES

EM93-113-12

5) Tvpe II Errors - intrinsic Sorinaback: Most composite engineers will be familiar with the phenomenon of radius spring-in of flanges or C section moldings. For carbon fiber/epoxy moldings cured at 250F or 35O*F, a 90 flange will typically close or spring-in by I* to 1.5 after cooling to room temperature. The spring-in observed is generally a combination of both Type II intrinsic and Type III thermomechanicat distortion. Methods for eliminating thermomechanicat distortion will be discussed in 6 below. Intrinsic springback, is simply a curvature change which occurs in any initially curved laminate which undergoes unequal dimensional changes in any three mutually perpendicular directions. These anisotropic dimensional changes may arise from anisotropic thermal contraction and resin volumetric changes during cure or due to anisotropic thermal expansion/contraction after cure. Isotropic materials for example, change size when subjected to a temperature change. In contrast, anisotropic materials change both size and shape when subjected to a temperature change. It should be noted that the basic driving mechanisms of anisotropic springback - resin voitimetric cure changes and fiber/resin thermal contraction and expansion - also produce in-plane laminate shrinkage which is classified as Type 1. The distinction is in fact arbitrary but of considerable analytical convenience when quantifying errors. Intrinsic springback is therefore a basic property for a given laminate construction and manufacturing process. In the case of hot cured carbon fiber/epoxy laminates (e.g. 250F cure), anisotropic thermal contraction during cooldown from the cure temperature accounts for most (at least 60%) of the observed spring-in or angle closure. Chemical volumetric changes in the matrix resin account for the rest. Since the chemical changes are irreversible, reheating a sprung-in component to its original cure temperature will not in general recover the original shape from which the molding was taken. For prepreg resin systems designed to cure at lower temperatures, such as ACGs range of LTM low temperature molding structural and tooling prepregs the thermal contraction effects during initial cure are of less significance than for a hot cured prepreg and hence chemical volumetric changes during both the initial and postcuring phases predominate. Since with such systems it is possible to vary the initial curing conditions to vary the thermal contraction element of the spring-in, it is possible to produce a range of different spring-in angles. Figure 6 shows the range of possible free spring angles, measured at room temperature, of C section 90 flanged woven Carbon Fiber/LTMlO moldings. Spring angles between 0.4* inwards and 0.8 outwards can be produced. Note that if such a laminate were subjected to a temperature change - e.g. by heating to 350 F - anisotropic thermal expansion would cause the spring angles to change. For anv

EM93-113-13

curved anisotropic molding, it is only possible to define its shape at a given reference temperature - change the temperature and both shape and size will change. Such behavior has some surprising characteristics, such as:

- The intrinsic springback behavior does not depend on radius geometry or laminate thickness. 60/O, is a constant for a given laminate construction and set
of curing conditions when measured at a given reference temperature (see Figure 2).This means that if the spring angle is known for one geometry, it can easily be predicted for any other geometry. - If the reinforcing material is exclusively a balanced biaxial fabric ( e.g. a balanced twill weave) the springback behavior is completely invariant with layer orientation i.e. a 0 layup has the same springback behavior as a O/900/+45* layup. - If the prepreg layers are not so balanced, the intrinsic springback behavior is still largely insensitive to layer orientation for most practical laminate constructions. For laminates made from unidirectional carbon fiber/epoxy prepregs orientated at O*, 90*, +450 and 45 to any axis, the effects of layer orientation on springback are generally negligible providing at least 20% of the layers are orientated at 0 and 90 respectively and the layup contains equal numbers of +45* and -45 plies. Intrinsic springback is therefore a very consistent and reproducible phenomenon. In the case of composite mold tool manufacture the presence of a substructure will often suppress springback errors such that the behavior shown in figure 6 is not observed. Since for any curved laminate, Type II springback will occur if the temperature changes, a tool face will typically exert significant forces on a constraining substructure if it is heated to elevated temperature in which case any curved molding will attempt to open out. If the constraining structure is of the traditional egg crate type, the bearing forces generated by springback, between tool face and backing board will cause a visible ridge or markoff to be transferred to a part being molded in that tool, unless a gap is left between tool face and backing board and unless the attachment method is semi-flexible (e.g. wet laminated cleats or elastomeric pads). Tool face errors caused by the resoftening of an incorrectly chosen cleat resin during postcure under the action of such springback forces are not uncommon. Similarly, tool face springback during heating can cause surface undulation of both the tool face and of the part being molded therein, if the substructure support members are too widely spaced or incorrectly positioned to react the springback generated forces. In addition, although return flanges are often used to peripherally stiffen a composite tool face, springback of these features during heating to the usage temperature of the tool will often distort that tool face such that this practice is counterproductive. In specific cases the ability to select a cure cycle for an LTM tool which results in a sprung out condition, can even be used to compensate for part springin (Reference 1). In conclusion therefore, a correctly designed substructure will suppress tool face springback errors, although a thorough understanding of tool face/substructure

M93-113-14

interaction

is necessary

to successfully

achieve this.

For part manufacture, intrinsic spring-in is usually compensated for by incorporating an empirical spring allowance into the model or toot or both. For simple geometries, such as C section wing spars, this method is easy to apply. In cases of double curvature such as when manufacturing a reflector or antenna dish with double curvature springback produces profile errors which are difficult to allow for empirically.ln such cases, the use of materials such as LTM prepregs which offer the possibility of intrinsic springback control simply by selecting an appropriate cure cycle, allow moldings with zero sorinoback distortion to be produced which is simply not possibie with 250F or 350 F

curing prepregs, because of the predominant and unavoidablethermal contraction effects.

FIGURE 6

CARBON

FIBER/LTMlO

SPRINGBACK FOR VARIOUS

RIGHT ANGLE
TOOL

TOOL LAMINATES OF 90 ANGLES MEASURED AT 70F INITIAL AND POSTCURE TEMPERATURES

WITH .24

MOLDING LAYUP.THICKNESS

CFS003/CFSOO7*81CFS003

5 2 g z 5

-.40 -.60 -.80 -1.00 l50 200 POSTCURE 250 TEMP 300 (PI 350 400

6) Tvne Ill Errors - Thermomechanical

Distortion:

Unlike Type I and Type II errors: which are amenable to quantification and analysis, Type Ill errors are highly variable and inconsistent. Such errors arise when a prepreg is laid up onto a model or tool such that:

1. The model/tool has a CTE significantly reinforcement in the prepreg.

2. The layup is clamped to the

greater

than

that of the fiber

model or tool ( e.g. by autoclave

pressure).

EM93-113-15

3. The whole assembly is subjected to a large temperature rise - i.e. 6Tc is large. If all three of the above conditions are met, the model or tool will expand thermally, and load the fibers in the as yet uncured prepreg in Tension. This in itself would not produce distortion, since the fiber tension is initially quite uniform through the thickness of the laminate-to-be. Since the matrix resin has yet to cure however, it is possible for
some prepreg layers to move in such a way as to reduce the tensile fiber strain and

hence the tensile load. When the resin gels, these residual stresses are locked into the
cured laminate and will cause distortion on demolding. Selective unloading of fibers can occur in several ways. The simplest unloading mechanism is interlayer slippage, where the fiber tension in layers not in direct contact with the model/tool face overcomes the

interlayer viscoelastic and frictional shear forces and causes unloading. The layers in intimate contact with the model/tool face continue to be loaded by direct frictional forces by virtue of the higher coefficient of friction at this interface. The result is a laminate
where the layers closest to the interface contain tensile stresses which are higher than those in the unloaded back plies. This would cause an otherwise flat laminate to bow on demolding such that the concave face is towards the model/tool. This is termed Type llla Linear Thermomechanical Distortion (Figure 3a). A different unloading mechanism can apply when prepreg is laid up over a male radius. In this case as the thicker prepreg stack is consolidated under pressure to form a thinner laminate, fibers on the outer face move inward along the radius, reducing the arc length and hence the tensile stress. Those fibers nearer to the tool/model move less If the prepreg is laid into a female radius, such far and undergo less unloading. movement of the back plies of the laminate moves the material such as to increase rather than to decrease the arc length and hence unloading cannot occur. This termed Type It is possible to derive lllb Geometric Thermomechanical Distortion (Figure 3b). expressions which approximate errors caused by Type lllb Effects (Reference 2), however since such errors are invariably accompanied by variable and unpredictable Type llla effects, accurate prediction remains a difficult task.

Both Type llla and Illb distortion can produce effects superficially similar to intrinsic
springback, but with important differences:

- Type Ill distortion varies significantly with radius geometry, layer orientation and
laminate thickness. - Curing the same layup on a male tool/model different springback values. or in a female tool/model will give

- Type Ill distortion

exhibits significant variability from molding to molding. Parameters which affect the distortion include prepreg age and resin viscosity (which affect layer slippage), rate and point of pressure and temperature application during cure (which determine at what point during model/tool

EM93-113-16

expansion the layup and model/tool level of induced fiber loading).

become

clamped

together

and hence the

- Type III distortion can occur in any molding including initially flat laminates whereas Type II distortion occurs only in initially curved moldings. Fortunately Type III errors can be eliminated or reduced in a number of ways.

For part manufacture: Type Ill errors become insignificant providing the tool CTE and part CTE are closely matched. Thus parts made from a correctly designed composite tool will exhibit little Type III distortion. For tool manufacture, the CTE of the master model material will typically be larger than that of the tooling prepreg laminate and if the initial cure temperature of the prepreg is high - e.g. 200F - significant Type Ill distortion will occur. Partly for this reason, practice for such materials has been to build tool laminates from large numbers of small prepreg tiles which thus avoid long continuous lengths of fiber within which thermomechanical stresses could be generated. This practice alleviates but does not completely eliminate Type III distortion! since fiber stresses within the tiles comprising the laminate are still generated, although a region around the edge of each tile (the shear transfer region) remains largely stress free. For second generation tooling prepreg materials which initially cure at lower temperatures - e.g. < 140F - Type III errors largely disappear, irrespective of whether the material is used in large continuous pieces or in precut tile form. The errors disappear since for cure temperatures of e.g. 115 F, 6Tc = 45 F and for most model materials the fiber stresses generated by the small amount of model expansion are negligible, compared with the case of a 200 F curing material where 6Tc = 130 F. The ability to use larger pieces of tooling prepreg, offering savings in manhours and cost, without risking Type III distortion, is a significant advantage of second generation tooling prepregs. For all tooling prepreg layers however, the correct use and positioning of layer cuts, is nevertheless still critical to avoid problems such as bridging in female radii - a phenomenon closely related to Type lllb distortion. For any tooling prepreg layup, no fibers should ever be continuous around both a male and female geometric feature for this same reason.

Conclusions: This paper has proposed classifications for the major sources of dimensional errors in prepreg composite moldings, and discussed methods by which such errors may be quantified or eliminated. Linear dimensional errors and intrinsic springback (Types I & II errors respectively)

EM93-113-17

have been shown to be predictable and consistent phenomena which are amenable to quantification. Design charts, such as those presented in figures 4, 5 & 6, can be used to quantify these errors. Low temperature molding structural and tooling prepregs have been shown to allow the elimination of both types of errors and offer the ability to produce prepreg moldings which duplicate the dimensions of a given master model or mold tool

without the need for thermal expansion compensation or empirical springback allowance.
Prepreg mateials which possess zero springback characteristics. for certain cure cycles represent a significant advance in eliminating molding errors: particularly for accuracy critical double curvature parts such as antenna dishes. Thermomechanical errors (Type Ill) arise from a combination of CTE mismatch, and large temperature rise during laminate cure and are typically variable and geometry dependent in nature. Such errors can be eliminated either by ensuring CTE compatibility between master model/tool and prepreg molding a by using low temperature molding prepregs which do not require a large temperature rise during initial cure.

EM93-113-18

REFERENCES 1. Ridgard, C. Distortion in Composite Prepreg Mould Tools and Components With Particular Reference to Low Temperature Curing and High Precision Moulding Techniques Proc. 9th International SAM PE Conference European Chapeter, Milano June 14-16, 1988, pp. 87-100 2. Nelson, R. H. Prediction Laminates of Dimensional During Cure Changes in Composite

Proc. 34th International SAMPE Symposium Reno, Nevada, May 8-I I, 1989 Vol. 34, Book 2, pp. 2397-2410