Dielectric cure monitoring for glass/polyester prepreg composites

The on-line cure monitoring of fiber reinforced thermosetting resin matrix composite material has been performed for improving quality and productivity during manufacturing. Since the dissipation factor measured by dielectrometry method is dependent on the degree of cure and temperature of resin, in this study, a new method to obtain the degree of cure during on-line cure monitoring for S-glass/polyester composites without temperature effect was developed by employing a combination function of the temperature and the dissipation factor. The temperature signal was measured with a K-type thermocouple and the dissipation factor signal was measured with an interdigital dielectric sensor during curing process. Then the calculated degree of cure using the measured data from dielectrometry was compared to the measured value from differential scanning calorimetry. The developed on-line cure monitoring method was applied to a 2-step cure cycle for the verification of the developed procedure.