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Technical Paper

X-Ray Curing of Carbon Fiber Composites for Structural Automotive Components

2017-03-28
2017-01-0504
Having demonstrated the feasibility of using X-rays derived from high current industrial electron beam accelerators (EB) to cure the matrices of carbon fiber composites and then scaled this up to cure large sized, non-structural automobile components, performance car hoods, the New York State Vehicle Composites Program had a chassis designed, a cured epoxy mold made and then the chassis matrix cured using X-rays with a formulated radiation responsive matrix material. A feasibility study had shown how X-rays could cure through materials embedded within the composite layers, such as metal inserts that could be used for mechanical fastening without fracturing the composite. In producing X-ray cured hoods, the power consumption for X-ray curing was found to be more than 20% lower than that needed for autoclave curing the same sized hoods using conventional thermosetting pre-pregs. More significant was the time-to-cure.
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