Major Factors Influencing Tensile Strength of Repaired CFRP-samples

The increasing demand for products made of carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) raises the risk of damages occurring during their use in a large variety and number. Depending on the type of damage, the product cannot be used any longer. CFRPs are characterized by high manufacturing costs and geometric individuality of the products, which limits the availability of replacement. From an economic and ecological point of view, several repair methods especially in the aerospace industry have been developed in the last years. The decision, which of these repair techniques has to be applied, depends on the extent of damage and different requirements of the product. Parts made of CFRP can often be repaired by manual removing of the damaged area followed by a re-lamination. This paper shows an actual approach to the CFRP-repair. Thereby influencing factors like the material removal, surface pretreatment and material composition will be discussed. By comparing the major factors, which lead to an increase of mechanical properties, suitable repair techniques could be defined. The optimum was found by experimental methods.