• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.81-86
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• 2017

The high-pressure resin transfer molding (HP-RTM) process has a very effective for the mass production of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) for light weight in the automotive industry. In developing robust equipment, new process and fast cure matrix systems reduces significantly the cycle time less than 5 minutes in recent years. This paper describes the cavity pressure, temperature and molding characteristics of the HP-RTM process. The HP-RTM mold was equipped with two cavity pressure sensors and three temperature sensors. The cavity pressure characteristics of the HP-RTM injection, pressurization, and curing processes were studied. This experiment was conducted with selected process parameters such as mold cap size, maximum press force, and injection volume. Consequently, this monitoring method provides correlations between the selected process parameters and final forming characteristics in this work.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.44-49
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• 2022

In this study, the simulation of the resin transfer molding process method using MoldFlow has been investigated. This work explains the thermoset material model, fabric permeability model, the flow model and the cure model. It has been shown that the simulation result can predict filling and cure performances.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.157-165
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• 2017

The high-pressure resin transfer molding (HP-RTM) technology has been commercialized for fast production of fiber reinforced composite materials. The high-pressure mixing head was one of the most core component of the HP-RTM process. In this study, a mixing head was systematically designed, manufactured and evaluated. This mixing head was composed of a nozzle, a mixing chamber, a cleaning piston part, and an internal mold release part. In actual, a straight-type structure was newly designed instead of the conventional L-type structure for improving the maximum mixing pressure and mixing ratio precision. The performance of mixing head was showed maximum mixing pressure of 15.22MPa and mixing ratio precision of 0.12%. CFRP molding experiments were successfully obtained a 6~11 laminating carbon sheet using HP-RTM presses and specimen molds.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.253-256
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• 2000

In order to commercialize the low cost composite fabrication technology in the area of domestic aerospace structure field, Resin Transfer Molding process has been considered as an alternative process to replace the high cost autoclave technology. The end part for the development of RTM process is the control rod of flight control system of aircraft. A braided preform was triaxially designed to improve the dimensional stability and mechanical property in the direction of external loads. Through the flow analysis using CVFEM, the resin filling time was calculated and the resin injection method was determined. The results of the flow analysis were directly applied to RTM mold design. The control rod was successfully manufactured by RTM process using internal pressure. The length and outer diameter of the manufactured part are 1148mm and 32mm, respectively.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.489-494
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• 2004

Long Period Gratings (LPG) is currently receiving considerable attention because of their consistent measuring results fur pressure, temperature, strain and flow. LPG is easier to prepare and has a high sensitivity compared with Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBG). In addition, this kind of optical fiber sensors could be used for implementations in various structures. In this paper, LPG was used to monitor in situ the resin flow and the curing process in VARTM (Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer. Molding). In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method, FBG is inserted into the glass mat to monitor the resin flow using optical spectrum analyzer (OSA). The curing reactions in VARTM are also observed using the same method. From the results, the attenuation wavelength shift and the loss change of attenuation band can be obtained from the status of the RTM (Resin Transfer Molding) sample owing to the internal variations of the .effective index, temperature, and pressure. It is shown that the proposed LPG is more effective in monitoring the curing reaction than FBG.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.83-86
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• 2003

Complete prediction of second order permeability tensor for three dimensional preform such as plain woven fabric and braided preform is critical to understand the resin transfer molding process of composites. The permeability can be obtained by various methods such as analytic, numerical, and experimental methods. For several decades, the permeability has studied numerically to avoid practical difficulty of many experiments. However, the predicted permeabilities are a bit wrong compared with experimentally measured data. In this study, numerical calculation of permeability was conducted for two kinds of preforms i.e., plain woven fabric and circular braided preform. In order to consider intra-tow flow in the unit cell of preform the proposed flow coupled model was used for plain woven fabric and the Brinkman equation was solved in the case of the braided preform.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.87-90
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• 2003

In Resin transfer molding (RTM), composite parts are produced by impregnation of a dry reinforcement with liquid matrix resin. Permeability is a key issue in this process. For thin parts, the resin flow in the thickness direction can be neglected. Therefore thin parts are considered as two-dimensional composites. However the resin flow through the thickness is important to thicker parts and we have to consider out-of-plane permeability. This work discusses a method to measure out-of-plane permeability. The flow rate and pressure drop across the porous media were measured. Also one dimensional form of Darcy's law is applied to calculate the out-of-plane permeability of various preforms. The flow is injected uniformly into layers of the preform. And a circular fiber mat with 6cm diameter was cut and flattened from cylindrical mandrel.

• Korea-Australia Rheology Journal
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.71-79
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• 2009

The incomplete saturation and the void formation during the resin infiltration into fibrous porous media in the resin transfer molding process cause failure in the final product during its service. In order to better understand flow behavior during the filling process, a finite-element scheme for transient flow simulation across the micro-structured fibrous media is developed in the present work. A volume-of- fluid (VOF) method has been incorporated in the Eulerian frame to capture the evolution of flow front and the vertical periodic boundary condition has been combined to avoid unwanted wall effect. In the microscale simulation, we investigated the transient filling process in various fiber structures and discussed the mechanism leading to the flow fingering in the case of random fiber distribution. Effects of the filling pressure, the shear-thinning behavior of fluid and the volume fraction on the flow front have been investigated for both intra-tow and the inter-tow flows in dual-scale fiber tow models.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.257-260
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• 2000

The composite composed of glass fabric and BMI resin was fabricated using resin transfer molding(RTM) process. it will be used as a supporting plate of transformer coil for high speed train. To develop a RTM process, permeability of preform was measured and resin properties like a viscosity and gellation time were checked. A resin pre-heating system and a mold system were also designed and developed. Using a vacuum-assisted RTM process, the composite supporting plate was successfully fabricated.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.239-245
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• 2016

In this study, carbon/phenol composites were prepared from carbon fiber preform and phenol resin by RTM(resin transfer molding) process. And changes in the properties of the composite according to the pre-treatment of phenol resin was mainly studied. RTM process conditions were deduced from viscosity and thermal analysis of phenol resin which were rheometer and thermogravimetric analyzer(TGA). RTM process was performed under various injection and molding temperature. Characterization of the prepared C/P composites were evaluated by various analysis. Morphology of composites was analyzed by Micro-CT(MCT), Mechanical properties of composites were measured through the flexural properties. As results, volatile impurities of phenol resin were effectively removed at resin pre-treatment temperature of $100^{\circ}C$ and composite was sufficiently cured at molding temperature of $180^{\circ}C$.