Composite structure composed of overlapped fibre bundles, thermoplastic resin and metal plate for secondary forming process

A simple shape of a composite is preferable in mass production, while a curved or stretched shape is sometimes preferable for final products. High formability would enable the composite to deform into a preferable shape by secondary forming. In this paper, a structure for a composite is proposed to enhance formability. The composite is composed of reinforcing fibre bundles, thermoplastic resin as the matrix and metal plates. The reinforcing fibre bundles are discontinuous, and are intentionally overlapped in the longitudinal direction. The resin including fibre bundles is sandwiched between the metal plates. As the thermoplastic resin is melted at an adequate temperature, heating would enhance the mobility of thermoplastic resin resulting in high formability at the secondary forming. If the overlapped length is adequately designed, the composite would still maintain high strength after the secondary formation. The validity of the concept was checked by finite element analyses and experiments.