ADVANCES IN PROCESSING OF CONTINUOUS FIBER-REINFORCED COMPOSITES WITHTHERMOPLASTIC MATRIX

In recent years, significant progress has been made in the manufacture of high performance thermoplastic composites using continuous fibre r einforcements and thermoplastic resins. The advantages of thermoplasti c composites lie in their potentials for rapid, low-cost mass producti on. These potentials are currently limited by the development of suita ble processing technologies. In this paper, cost-effective material fo rms of thermoplastic composites, their manufacturing techniques and th e current processing methods as well as associated forming deformation mechanisms are reviewed for production of fibre reinforced thermoplas tic composite parts.