FABRICATION OF AUTOMOBILE COMPOSITE SHELL STRUCTURE USING COMPRESSION MOLDING PROCESS

To improve the manufacturing efficiency and promotes more durable material for automobile shell structure, a new composite compression method, called compression molding, was discussed to form composite parts directly. This kind of method has a promising way in mass production of the composite material. Experiment set-up on compression molding of the composite material was conducted to investigate the forming behavior and analyze the parameters (temperature, velocity, pressure and time) involves in the production of the composite part. A prepreg laminates of the thermosetting polymer was placed into the heated mold and compressed. Useful parameters during the compression process, such as die temperature, holding time and pressure required to form the part are determined.