Layup and process dependent wrinkling behavior of PPS/CF UD tape-laminates during non-isothermal press forming into a complex component

Forming of thermoplastic, multilayered UD-Tape laminates using high-volume press forming processes play an increasingly important role in the manufacturing of load carrying structural vehicle components [1-4]. Within previous studies mainly lab-scale process equipment, simple shaped geometries and standard layup configurations [5-10] have been analyzed. The geometrical forming limits and the development of wrinkles [8], which are influenced by the processing parameters as well as the layup configuration are not sufficiently investigated yet. Thus, this article presents an experimental forming study of multilayered UD-Tape laminates into a complex box-shaped component. A fully automated process sequence and industrial scale equipment was used. By means of online thermal measurements, it is proven that even at initial contact points of the mold and laminate the forming ends well above the recrystallization temperature revealing the formability of the given materials at different mold temperatures and closing speeds. Additionally, a detailed forming study was performed comparing three different layup configurations within different stages of the forming. Thereby, the layup dependent development of wrinkles was analyzed using topographical object measurements with a laser-scanner and was quantified by calculating the surface curvature from a generated surface mesh [11].