The winding process is one of the main processes for making carbon fiber products. Let’s take a brief look today:
Using wet winding, the carbon fiber tow after dipping is directly wound on the mandrel or inner lining through a winding machine under a certain tension control, and finally cured.
Its technological process mainly includes the following steps:
1. Prepare raw materials:including carbon fiber bundles, resin glue, mandrel, inner lining, etc.
2. Forming of the inner lining: First, the surface of the mandrel must be cleaned, the surface of the straight pipe must be wrapped with a polyester film release agent, and the part of the non-straight pipe must be coated with paraffin wax and polyvinyl alcohol release agent. A lining material such as polyethylene or polypropylene is then placed inside the mandrel and heated to conform to the mandrel surface.
3. Winding and strengthening:The carbon fiber tow is immersed in the resin glue solution through the dipping tank, and the resin content is controlled by a scraper. Then, under the control of the tension controller to control the fiber tension, the impregnated carbon fiber bundles are directly wound onto the mandrel or the surface of the inner lining, and different winding angles and layers are selected according to different application requirements to achieve the best performance. Generally speaking, the commonly used dimensional winding angles are 0, ±45′, 90, where the 0° direction provides longitudinal stiffness; the ±45 direction provides torsional strength; and the 90° direction provides hoop strength.
4. Demolding: Put the wrapped carbon fiber tube into the oven and let it solidify. Generally speaking, the curing temperature is about 100C~150C, and the curing time is about 1 hour~2 hours. After curing, the carbon fiber tube is removed from the mandrel. If appearance treatment is required, processes such as grinding and painting can be carried out.
The biggest advantage of carbon fiber wound pipe is that it can produce complex curved surface shapes, which are suitable for making conical, spherical, oval, and other special-shaped pipe fittings. It can be widely used in various industries, especially the unmanned aerial vehicle, aerospace, and medical industries that have extremely high requirements for material performance.
