Headway Group Of Research

Volume 11 Issue 2

A Novel Approach to Monitoring the Curing of Epoxy in Closed Tools by Use of Ultrasonic Spectroscopy

Christian Pommer and Michael Sinapius

Institut for Adaptronics and Function Integration, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Langer Kamp 6, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Abstract

The increasing use of composite materials has led to a greater demand for efficient curing cycles to reduce costs and speed up production cycles in manufacturing. One method to achieve this goal is in-line cure monitoring to determine the exact curing time. This article proposes a novel method through which to monitor the curing process inside closed tools by employing ultrasonic spectroscopy. A simple experiment is used to demonstrate the change in the ultrasonic spectrum during the cure cycle of an epoxy. The results clearly reveal a direct correlation between the amplitude and state of cure. The glass transition point is indicated by a global minimum of the reflected amplitude.
Keywords:ultrasonic; cure monitoring; resonant ultrasonic spectroscopy
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