Defects such as fiber waviness can occur during the production of thermoplastic composite parts. It is desirable to prevent or minimize fiber waviness as it causes a knockdown in the part’s mechanical properties. However, the mechanisms governing the formation of fiber waviness are currently not fully understood. A setup for the real-time observation of waviness formation during flat laminate consolidation is presented in this paper. For C/PEEK unidirectional composites, it was observed that waviness forms during cooling between the maximum process temperature and the crystallization temperature. A higher processing temperature leads to waviness with a larger misalignment angle. No such trends were observed for the wavelength. Waviness does not form or increase in severity after crystallization. The driving force for waviness formation in flat laminate consolidation was determined to be tool shrinkage transferred to the laminate via tool-ply friction.

在热塑性复合材料零件的生产过程中，可能会发生诸如纤维波纹的缺陷。希望防止或减小纤维起伏，因为它会导致零件机械性能下降。但是，目前尚不完全了解控制纤维波纹度形成的机理。本文提出了一种用于在平面层压板固结过程中实时观察波纹形成的设置。对于C / PEEK单向复合材料，观察到在最高工艺温度和结晶温度之间的冷却过程中会形成波纹。较高的加工温度会导致波纹度较大，且偏差角度较大。对于波长没有观察到这样的趋势。结晶后波纹不形成或不增加严重性。