In-situ measurement technologies for flow behaviour and contact status of fibre-reinforced thermoplastics during forming with a six degree of freedom press

Institute of Machine Tools and Production Technology, Technische Universität Braunschweig, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany

^* Corresponding author: b.wonnenberg@tu-braunschweig.de

Abstract

The paper presents investigations on a forming process, which is implemented in a forming press based on a Stewart platform. In contrast to common forming techniques, this buildup offers not only one but six degrees of freedom. This is of particular interest when it comes to the forming of materials that show significant anisotropic behaviour such as fibre-reinforced plastics. Therefore, an experimental setup is presented to record characteristic variables during the forming process of fibre-reinforced thermoplastics. The contact state is of particular interest for this kind of forming process because it changes continuously in shape and position as the forming process progresses. For this purpose, temperatures at different places in the tool are recorded to provide information about the flow velocity of the material and the contact state between tool and workpiece. This allows the determination of the exact time and position of the contact between material and forming tool as well as the duration of this contact. The results are compared with optical measurements analysed by image processing algorithm and process forces measured by load cells.