Visualisation of the degrees of compaction of self-reinforced polypropylene composites by means of ultrasonic testing

Self-reinforced fibre composites are solely based on the bonding of matrix and fibre identical thermoplastics and hence do not rely on fibre reinforcements of a foreign material. The self-reinforcement can be transferred to hot-compacted fibre composites by means of stretched textile semifinished products. The two processing conditions temperature and process time, in particular, have a significant influence on the macromolecular orientation and the degree of compaction. Within the framework of these investigations, the effectiveness of the degrees of compaction achieved this way are characterised and discussed on the basis of both non-destructive ultrasonic testing of selected fibre composites and additional quasi-statistically determined tensile properties.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hans-Peter Heim1 | Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-Wirt.Ing. Wolfgang Tillmann2 | Dipl.-
Ing. Angela Ries¹ | Dipl.-Ing. Norman Sievers² | Dipl.-Ing. Björn Rohde¹ | Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-
Phys. Reiner Zielke^2
1 Institute of Materials Engineering, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany
² Institute of Materials Engineering, Technical University of Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany