Automated fibre placement process for a new hybrid material: A numerical tool for predicting an efficient heating law

An innovative hybrid thermoplastic manufacturing process has been investigated, which consists in carbon fibres reinforced poly(ether-ether-ketone) (PEEK) prepreg sandwiched between two amorphous polyetherimide (PEI) films. By using a laser-assisted automated fibre placement (AFP), a laminate is produced by the deposition of hybrid prepreg tapes, layer-by-layer without using autoclave. The temperature history control is required to ensure good consolidation throughout the part. This depends on the optical behaviour of the hybrid material, which is also subjected to the influence of process parameters. Before determining the optical properties of the new hybrid material, the correlation between these process parameters has been established based on the interaction of laser spot with PEI film and PEEK/carbon fibres tape. Then, the thermal distribution in the laminate is obtained via an optico-thermal model and validated with experimental results. Finally, a heating law for the AFP process is established using iterative numerical simulations.