Composites Design and Manufacture (Plymouth University teaching support materials) Process monitoring and control.

Lecture PowerPoint

Review papers

Subject Index

The key issues are measurement and control [1, 2] of:

• mass
• temperature [3, 4]
• humidity [5]
• pressure [6]
• viscosity and flow rate
• flow front position
• polymerisation, gel-point and degree-of-cure [7]
• crystallinity [8, 9]

Principal sensor technologies include electrochemical – dielectric – optical fibre – IR and Raman spectroscopy – ultrasonic – mechanical impedance analysis.

Dielectric cure monitoring systems have been developed by Micromet (marketed as Episilon by the Netzsch Group), Ashland Performance Materials, formerly Signature Control Systems, (SmartTrac^®) and the DYNAMIC consortium (an EU SME-2 Collective Research project), amongst others.

Process control technologies include proportional-integral-derivative, fuzzy logic and artificial neural networks.

References

1. J Summerscales, Chapter 2: In-process monitoring for control of closed-mold techniques for the manufacture of thermosetting matrix composites, In Gabriel O Shonaike and Suresh G Advani (editors): Advanced Polymeric Materials – Structure and Property Relationships, CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton - Florida, April 2003, pp 57-101. ISBN 1-58716-047-1. PU CSH Library.  MooDLE.
2. S Konstantopoulos, E Fauster and R Schledjewski, Monitoring the production of FRP composites: a review of in-line sensing methods, Express Polymer Letters, 2014, 8(11), 823-840.
3. R Rusby, The Beginner’s Guide to Temperature Measurement, NPL Measurement Good Practice Guide 125, September 2012.
4. R Rusby, Introduction to temperature easurement, NPL Measurement Good Practice Guide No. 125, 2016
5. S Bell, A Beginner’s Guide to Humidity Measurement, NPL Measurement Good Practice Guide (draft), October 2011.
6. Laurence Cuscó (coordinator) et al, Guide to the measurement of pressure and vacuum, Institute of Measurement and Control and National Physical Laboratory, London, 1998.  ISBN 0-904457-29-x.
7. GE Fonseca, MA Dubé and A Penlidis, A critical overview of sensors for monitoring polymerizations, Macromolecular Reaction Engineering, 14 September 2009, 3(7), 327–373.
8. S Kavesh and JM Schultz, Meaning and measurement of crystallinity in polymers: a review, Polymer Engineering and Science, September 1969, 9(5), 331-338.
9. S Kavesh and JM Schultz, Meaning and measurement of crystallinity in polymers: a review, Polymer Engineering and Science, November 1969, 9(6), 452-460.