Dimensionally stable textile preforms for use in liquid resin infusion manufacture

Textile composites are increasingly used for quality-critical applications. Interest in these materials is primarily driven by the cost of manufacturing. Liquid resin infusion (LRI) processes can be significantly cheaper than the conventional autoclave manufacturing. However, there are a number of barriers in their expansion at the present time. One of the fundamental problems of the LRI with flexible tooling is the dimensional stability of complex components. Concave corners and junctions tend to be smoothed, thickness distribution is inhomogeneous in convex corners, component edges drift away from the designed path, and large resin rich zones are formed in under-consolidated zones. The primary reason for these peculiarities is insufficient tooling constraints. The current study explores the feasibility of stabilising compliant preforms through the point-wise highly-controlled integration of resin binder and consolidation prior to resin infusion. The study aims at exploring the efficiency of novel binding techniques and the effects it may have on preform and composite properties.