Quality Characterization of the Vacuum-Bagging-Only (VBO) – Out Of Autoclave (OOA) Cured Composite Panels

The parameters of the Vacuum Bagging Only (VBO) configuration and the curing process were investigated. The scope of VBO configuration was narrowed down to the vacuum pressure whereas the control variable in curing process was focused on the curing temperature. Literature review is critically analyzed in the study of the processing parameters for the manufacturing of composite panels. The quality of the composite panel cured by Out-Of-Autoclave (OOA) is investigated in this study. This study focused on two main sub-processes which is lay-up and vacuum bagging. Two variations in lay-up parameters studied are laminate debulking at every ply and ply edge stagger. For the vacuum bagging, two different techniques studied are Ply edge breather and Polytetrafluoroethylene.
Methodology has been designed in order to study the physical and mechanical properties of the VBO-OOA cured composite panels. Study on physical properties of the composite panel CYCOM 970 was be carried out through Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis. The microstructure of the material is observed. Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and Ply edge breather (VBO) bagging configuration have the least void content in their microstructure