Tooling and Infusion Design Strategies to Reduce Trade-Offs in Forming and Infusion Quality of Multi-Textile CFRPs

Achieving right-first-time-manufacture (RFTM) of co-infused textile assemblies is challenging, without improving the accessibility to design knowledge of trade-offs between different tooling and infusion strategies. As demonstrated in previous work, the choice between a flexible or rigid mould material can result in trade-offs between dimensional accuracy and geometrical precision. Similarly, the choice of an infusion strategy can result in trade-offs in infusion quality and time. Building on past work, an investigation into forming variability across the length of six co-infused multi-textile components, with three different tooling inserts and two infusions set-ups, was conducted. To quantitatively assess variation, a method adapting principles of statistical process control was employed to analyse the yarn crimp measured from high-resolution cross-sectional scans of the components. The results were compared to a geometrical and dimensional analysis of the manufactured parts presented in a previous work. The analysis represents a method for capturing forming differences in textile preforms, which can be used to inform designs for the manufacture of textile CFRPs. The results were used to improve a hybrid rigid-flexible tooling design for an infused multi-textile component.