Effect of rapid curing process on the properties of carbon fiber/epoxy composite fabricated using vacuum assisted resin infusion molding

• Properties of rapid curing composite were investigated.
• Process time of composite fabricated by VARIM was controlled within 16 min.
• The highest flexural strength is obtained from the preheating process.
• Slightly non-uniformity of properties exists along resin flow direction.
• Preheating of fiber is believed to be suitable for rapid VARIM process.

Long processing cycle makes vacuum assisted resin infusion molding (VARIM) only suitable for low and medium volumes of production, and shortening of curing time is critical to improving the processing efficiency of automotive composite parts. In this paper, unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced composite laminates were fabricated by VARIM. Three different processes (namely quick, quick-post and preheating) were employed, in which a kind of rapid curing epoxy resin is used. The preheating of mold and fiber was conducted to shorten the filling time compared with that of quick process. Quick-post process with a post cure stage was investigated to verify the composite properties fabricated by quick process. The cycle time was 16 min for preheating process, about 30% shorter than that of quick process, simultaneously, flexural strength and interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) were respectively improved by 29% and 7% compared with those of quick process. The non-uniformity of mechanical properties at different positions along resin flow direction under preheating process was found, but the processing quality of composite was good. The preheating process is confirmed to be suitable for the improvement of processing efficiency of VARIM with good mechanical properties. In addition, the composite fabricated by quick-post process has better mechanical properties, which is attributed to the alleviation of residual stress during post curing process.