Novel Low Melt Polyaryletherketone (LMPAEK) Composite Tape Helps Deliver Processing Advantages for Automated Fibre Placement

A novel Low Melt Polyaryletherketone (LMPAEK) polymer from Victrex Ltd, Thornton-Cleveleys, UK has been created for automated fibre placement (AFP) and out of autoclave (OoA) consolidation. VICTREX AE? 250 LMPAEK is a co-polymer based on polyetheretherketone (PEEK). It is a semi-crystalline polymer with mechanical properties and chemical resistance typical for this class of polymer. Combined with reinforcing carbon fibres it provides mechanical properties that are consistent with the requirements for structural aerospace applications. In-situ consolidated laminates made from stacked unidirectional tapes are shown to be well consolidated, substantially void-free, and with mechanical properties that are consistent with press consolidated product, opening a broader range of manufacturing options for aerospace parts including automated layup. In this research, a composite prepreg manufactured using a relatively new high-performance LMPAEK polymer from Victrex Plc (UK) will be described, which offers AFP processing at lower temperatures than Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) whilst displaying excellent consolidation with minimal voids and good mechanical properties. It will also be demonstrated that LMPAEK/Carbon fibre prepreg laid by AFP shows the potential to save power and cycle time of LMPAEK unidirectional tape (UDT) with substantially equivalent physical and mechanical properties when compared to a similar tape intended for the same purpose. Trials using VICTREX AE 250 LMPAEK UDT have demonstrated that AE 250 LMPAEK processes at laydown speeds significantly faster than other polyaryetherketone polymers of the same general type for similar applications, partly because of the lower melting temperature. This has significant implications for manufacturers of thermoplastic composite aerospace parts since manufacturing-time is of the essence for high volume serial production.