On the weld strength of in situ tape placed reinforcements on weave reinforced structures

Unidirectionally reinforced thermoplastic tapes were welded onto woven fabric reinforced laminates using a laser assisted tape placement process. A mandrel peel setup was used to quantify the interfacial fracture toughness between the tape and the laminate as a measure for weld strength. The tape placement process was compared to a conventional press molding process in terms of interfacial fracture toughness. The tape placed specimens were found to outperform the press molded specimens. Additional experiments were performed to investigate the influence of the degree of crystallinity and the process induced weld interface on the measured fracture toughness.