Carbon fiber-Aluminum Hybrid Composite via VARTM and Simple Stitching Method

Abstract

There is increasing interest in carbon-aluminum hybrid composites, which have the lightweight and excellent mechanical properties of carbon fiber and high impact resistance of aluminum [1, 2]. Traditionally, carbon-aluminum hybrid composites are manufactured by hot-press or autoclave process. Due to their limited part size and high production cost, mass production of hybrid composites with the traditional methods is difficult. Vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) has proven to be a cost-effective process. However, for carbon-aluminum hybrid composites, VARTM cannot be used because aluminum is not porous and the resin cannot flow in the thickness direction. We solved it by perforating holes in the aluminum layer to utilize resin flow pathways in the thickness direction. Additionally, even though stitching technique can improve interlaminar strength of composites [3], it could not be used for the hybrid composite because the needle cannot penetrate aluminum. However, once the aluminum is perforated, the through thickness stitching can be applied along the holes boosting the advantages of carbon-aluminum hybrid composites.