Characterization of Material for Composite Automotive Components
Abstract
A composite had been widely used for the lightweighting purpose amid increasing environmental concerns. Among composite manufacturing processes, compression molding is widely used for automotive parts. During compression molding, the mold geometry and molding process conditions significantly influence the fiber configuration and the mechanical performance.
Hence, this thesis aims to characterize the microstructural and mechanical properties of the complex shaped composite automotive components: outer seatback and inner seatback. Both parts were compression molded using commercial glass mat thermoplastic sheet with long glass fibers (30mm-50mm) embedded in the polyamide resin. The microstructural characterization results showed that the microstructural properties are influenced by geometries of the automotive components. Especially the geometries significantly influenced the fiber orientation of the nearby region. For the mechanical properties, both tensile and flexural properties were measured. The better mechanical properties were shown in the samples with higher fiber alignment in a loading direction.